fiE  Law  of  Service 


r 


Ji,L,,'o! 


PRESENTED  TO  THE  LIBRARY 


OF 


PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


lY 


Ppofessor  \\^nvy  von  Dyke,  D.O.,  IiLi.D. 

BR  50  .K44  1894 

Kelley,  James  Prentice,  1849 

The  law  of  service 


THE    LAW   OF    SERVICE 

A  STUDY   IN   CHRISTIAN 
ALTRUISM 


BY 
V 

JAMES    P.   KELLEY 


^ 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW   YORK  LONDON 

27  West  Twenty-third  Street  24  Bedford  Street,  Strand 

i;^e  ^nukerbotkct  ^rcss 
1894 


Copyright,  1894 

BY 

JAMES   P.  KELLEY 


Electrotyped,  Printed  and  Bound  by 

Ube  Itnichcrboct^cr  press,  t\cw  HJorfc 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 


TO  MY  GOOD  FRIEND,  THE  READER. 


Kindly  do  not  assume,  if  I  urge  liberal  giving  of  money, 
that  I  think  money  will  do  everything,  or  can  take  the 
place  of  that  which  is  more  precious.  Do  not  assume,  if 
I  speak  from  the  standpoint  of  liberal  orthodoxy,  that  I 
consider  that,  in  its  present  form,  a  finality.  Do  not 
assume,  if  I  refrain  from  expounding  your  favorite  views 
and  anticipating  your  criticisms,  that  I  have  never  heard 
or  thought  of  them.  In  this  little  work,  the  product  of  a 
busy  man's  leisure,  I  have  not  aimed  at  completeness.  I 
have  had  neither  time  nor  disposition  to  qualify  and 
amplify,  and  to  minimize  the  effect  of  the  rule  by  dwelling 
on  the  exception. 

In  Christianity,  as  I  understand  it,  I  do  so  positively 
and  strongly  believe  as  to  think  that  if  we  take  it  seriously 
it  will  work  itself  clear.  Of  course  there  will  be  blunder- 
ing and  waste  ;  but  better  so,  a  thousand  times  better, 
than  if  we  are  too  selfish  or  too  critical  or  too  canny  to 
make  the  experiment. 

Confidently  looking  forward  to  the  "New  Era"  of 
Christian  Altruism,  I  should  be  glad  to  contribute  some- 
what to  the  dissemination  of  altruistic  views. 

J.  P.  K. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

I.     Introductory  i 

II.     The  Main  Thesis 4 

III.  Duty  of  the  Individual        ...       8 

IV.  Theoretical  Teaching  of  the  Church     13 

V.  Practical  Teaching  of  the  Church    .     20 

VI.  Our  Position  Defined    .        .        .        -27 

VII.  The  Felicity  of  Service        .         .         .30 

VIII.  Religious  Experience     .        .        .        .34 

IX.     Theology 38 

X.  The  Church  :  Instruction     .         .             42 
XL  The  Church  :  Inspiration  and  Aggres- 
sion     48 

XII.  Clergy  and  Laity           .         .         .        -55 

XIII.  Home  Training 61 

XIV.  Social  Life       ......     68 

XV.  Human  Brotherhood      .         .         .        -75 

XVI.  Our  Dumb  Neighbors     .        .        .        .81 

XVII.     Citizenship 88 

XVIII.  Business  and  Industry  .        .         .         .94 

XIX.     Art 104 

XX.  Literature        .         .         .        .         .         .111 

XXL     Education 124 

XXIL     The  Difference 139 

V 


THE  LAW  OF  SERVICE. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

T^HIS  is  a  radical  book,  setting  forth  uncur- 
*  rent  views.  It  is  written  by  one  who  be- 
lieves that  the  unique  Reformer  from  whose 
birth  we  reckon  our  centuries  was  and  is  the 
Saviour  of  the  world  ;  that  our  only  rational  hope 
is  in  the  truth  he  taught,  applied  to  human 
affairs.  It  is  written  because  the  central  truth 
of  Christianity  is  but  dimly  perceived  as  yet, 
but  feebly  taught,  but  languidly  and  childishly 
applied  to  life  and  institutions.  It  is  written, 
moreover,  because  of  the  heart-breaking  misery 
of  man  and  beast,  so  widespread,  so  unjust,  so 
enormous  in  the  aggregate  that  only  by  somehow 
ignoring  it  can  a  sensitive  person  endure  life 
with  equanimity;  unpitied  misery  and  unrelieved, 
which  cries  to  heaven  against  the  barbarity  of 

I 


XLbc  Xaw  of  Service 


what  we  are  pleased  to  call  Christian  civiliza- 
tion ;  misery  that  can  be  remedied  only  by 
strenuous  and  thoughtful  exercise  of  the  humane 
spirit  of  Christianity.  Finally  it  is  written 
because  the  author,  however  severe  in  judgment 
of  their  conduct,  yet  believes  that  good  men's 
hearts  are  better  than  their  heads,  and  that  a 
crying  need  of  the  time,  with  all  its  mental 
energy  and  activity,  is  clear  thinking  about  the 
simple  matters  here  discussed. 

It  were  easy  to  praise  the  disciples  of  the 
Great  Reformer  for  their  achievements  thus 
far  and  their  activities  to-day,  for  distinguished 
heroism  and  obscure  sainthood  ;  but  these  pages 
are  not  for  any  whose  Christianity  is  so  invirile 
that  it  must  be  propitiated  before  it  can  be 
criticised.  They  are  for  those  with  faith 
enough  and  honesty  enough  to  welcome  the 
truth,  however  bluntly  spoken  and  however 
searching.  They  are  for  those,  too,  who  stand 
more  or  less  aloof  from  Christianity  as  they  see 
it  misrepresented,  but  are  open-minded  and 
reasonable,  ready  to  accept  what  commends 
itself  to  their  moral  judgment. 

The  object  of  the  chapters  which  follow  is  in 
a  simple  and  straightforward  way  to  get  at  the 
central  teaching  of  Christ  concerning  conduct  ; 
to  make,  in  the  light  of  that  teaching,  some 
brief  examination  and  criticism  of  things  as 
they  are  ;  to  show  by  the  same  light  something 
of   how    they    ought    to   be ;    and    to    consider 


ITntrobuctori? 


various  important  applications  and  illustrations 
of  the  law  which  gives  the  volume  its  title — all 
this  with  more  concern  for  sound  thinking,  sub- 
stantial truth,  and  practical  use  than  for  logical 
sequence  of  topics  and  formal  unity  of  treat- 
ment. The  doctrine  of  the  book  is  important  if 
true. 


ig?^^^:;;^^^pi;;; 

■■C!ii*'M|i^S^^^5»^^ 

II. 


THE  MAIN  THESIS. 

I  \A/H^ATEVER  else  may  or  may  not  be  taught 
* — '  ^  in  the  New  Testament,  the  twofold  Law 
of  Love  is  there  given  as  the  great  command- 
ment of  the  old  dispensation,  and  enforced  by 
the  obedience  of  Christ  as  of  like  rank  in  the 
new  ;  as  authoritative  for  him  and  for  all  his. 
The  obligation  to  love  God  is  stated  explicitly 
enough.  The  command  to  love  our  neigh- 
bor, like  to  the  other  in  its  binding  force, 
has  for  its  interpretation  the  lifelong  sacrifice 
by  which  Christ  gave  for  the  world's  welfare  all 
that  he  had  to  give.  His  whole  business  on 
earth  was  to  express  that  perfect  love  for  God's 
creatures  which  is  the  obverse  of  his  perfect 
love  for  God. '  As  if  to  guard  the  duty  of  benefi- 
cence against  misapprehension  or  neglect,  he 
not  only  taught  human  kindness  as  in  the  par- 
able of  the  Good  Samaritan,  but  in  a  passage  of 
prophecy  which  might  well  be  in  the  ritual  of 
every  church  he  made  the  dread  decisions  of 
the  judgment  to   turn   not  on   doctrine  but  on 

4 


tTbe  /Iftaln  Zbcsie 


conduct,  not  on  the  moral  law  in  general  but  on 
the  law  of  beneficence  in  particular.  This  is 
the  style  of  his  teaching  who  went  about  doing 
good.  Well  might  Paul  sing  the  psalm  of 
"  Charity,"  and  John  declare  that  God  is 
Love. 

If  the  Law  of  Love  has  such  implications  and 
such    tremendous  sanctions,  there  seems  to  be 
no  escape  from  the  proposition  that  every  man 
ought  to   do  his  absolute  utmost  for  the  well-  I 
being  of  his  fellow-creatures.  ~J  ■ 

Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  We 
have  been  taught  who  is  our  neighbor.  Our 
duty  to  him  is  not  based  upon  vicinity,  associa- 
tion, artificial  relations,  but  upon  the  Law  of 
Love.  His  need  of  help  is  his  all-sufficient 
appeal.  To  every  sentient  creature  I  stand 
related  in  such  wise  that  I  ought  to  give  him 
my  interest,  my  sympathy,  my  help  if  possible. 
My  obligation  is  measured  by  powers  and  op-  ! 
portunities,  by  comparison  of  needs,  by  the  ex-  t 
pediencies  and  economies  of  a  generous,  impar- 
tial stewardship.  The  question  is,  not  how 
much  of  time,  strength,  money,  and  spiritual 
force  I  must  divert  from  the  pursuit  of  my  own 
private  ends  to  an  outside  work  of  beneficence  ; 
but  how  I  shall  so  order  my  life  and  husband 
my  resources  as  to  do  all  that  is  in  my  power 
for  the  common  goodJ  Once  for  all,  let  us  re- 
pudiate the  heresy,  Tar  more  dangerous  and  per- 
nicious  than   any   alleged   vagaries   of  "  higher 


^bc  Xavv  of  Service 


criticism  "  or  "  larger  hope,"  that  the  individual 
may  to  any  least  degree  live  for  himself,  in 
competition  with  others.  Waiving  the  question 
whether  under  the  new  dispensation  we  are 
taught  to  love  others  better  than  ourselves,  let 
us  accept  the  old  commandment.  I  must  love 
my  neighbor  A.  as  myself  ;  I  must  love  B.,  C, 
and  I),  as  myself.  Every  man  is  my  neighbor 
— there  is  no  drawing  the  line.  Every  sentient 
creature  is  my  neighbor,  and  makes  its  legiti- 
mate appeal.  Granted  the  claims  of  myself 
upon  myself  ;  I  am  but  one  among  countless 
millions,  each  with  his  divinely  sanctioned 
claim — millions  not  only  of  this  age  but  of  all 
the  ages  to  come  ;  for  I  am  a  maker  of  desti- 
nies. Relatively,  my  private  claim  is  a  vanish- 
ing point.  Again,  God  claims  my  undivided 
service.  It  will  doubtless  be  admitted  that 
there  is  no  limit  here,  save  the  limit  of  my 
ability.  But  he  that  spared  not  his  own  son 
but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  will  be  content 
with  nothing  short  of  our  utmost  devotion  to 
the  common  good.  In  comparison  with  his 
claim  for  all,  what  is  my  claim  for  myself  ?  We 
do  not  question  here  the  inestimable  importance 
of  the  individual  atom  ;  we  but  compare  the 
atom  witli  the  mass.  The  whole  question  of 
conflicting  or  competing  claims,  however,  is 
taken  out  of  court  by  the  simple  consideration 
that  in  doing  his  utmost  for  others  one  does  ex- 
actly   the    utmost    for    himself.     The  glorious 


Zbc  /IRaln  Zbceis 


paradox,  He  that  loseth  his  life  shall  find  it,  is 
an  axiom  of  Christianity. 

In  the  Republic  of  God  there  is  no  question 
of  conflicting  rights  ;  Right  is  supreme.  No 
question  of  conflicting  claims  ;  God  is  one.  No 
question  of  conflicting  interests  ;  the  interest  of 
all  is  the  interest  of  each.  The  gospel  of  com- 
petition is  not  the  gospel  of  Christ.  The  Law 
of  Love  is  a  Law  of  Utmost  Service,  and  the  Law 
of  Service  is  the  working  rule  of  life. 


III. 


DUTY  OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL. 


NjONE  but  a  perfect  intelligence  could  so 
'  ^  grasp  the  conditions  and  reason  upon  the 
facts  of  a  given  life  as  to  point  out  in  detail  the 
way  of  its  greatest  possible  usefulness.  We  may 
not  hope  to  attain  the  ideal  in  the  economy  of 
service.  If  we  would  be  loyal  servants  we 
must,  according  to  our  intelligence  and  capacity, 
apply  the  principles  of  business,  the  art  of  bring- 
ing things  to  pass,  to  our  one  all-inclusive  busi- 
ness of  service.  The  mediaeval  saint,  in  theory, 
gave  up  all.  He  denied  himself,  abased  him- 
self, afflicted  himself,  isolated  himself.  The 
modern  prelate  inhabits  an  episcopal  palace, 
and  is  conversant  with  the  luxuries  and  festivi- 
ties of  Vanity  Fair.  The  early  disciple  wor- 
shipped in  an  upper  chamber,  or  sought  refuge 
in  caves  of  the  earth  ;  the  modern  pewholder 
listens  to  the  service  in  a  temple  almost  too  fine 
for  a  jjoor  man  to  enter.  John  the  Baptist 
wore  a  leathern  girdle  about  his  loins,  and  his 
meat  was  locusts  and  wild  honey  ;  the  modern 

8 


2)ut^  of  tbe  irnMvi&ual 


reformer  fares  sumptuously  every  day,  and  may  j 
consume  the  labor  of  a  hundred  men  to  keep 
up  the  splendor  of  his  private  establishment. 
We  may  not  justly  say  that  a  man's  usefulness 
is  proportioned  to  his  poverty,  his  self-neglect, 
his  ignorance,  his  misery.  Not  even  because 
the  chief  of  all  servants  had  not  where  to  lay 
his  head  and  died  a  martyr  may  we  affirm  that 
the  mediaeval  way  was  wholly  right  and  the 
modern  wholly  wrong.  Such  conclusions  are 
easily  reached,  but  they  are  worthless. 

Could  the  monk  do  the  most  good  in  squalor 
and  loneliness  ?  Can  the  rich  philanthropist, 
absorbing  into  himself  the  strength  of  a  hundred 
men,  get  a  better  sum-total  of  results  by  his  own 
efforts  than  by  directly  utilizing  their  power 
along  with  his  in  productive  and  helpful  activi- 
ties ?  These  are  the  important  questions,  and 
they  may  not  be  dismissed  with  a  one-sided 
generalization.  Questions  generically  the  same 
must  press  upon  every  thoughtful  and  earnest 
lover  of  mankind,  demanding  for  their  right 
answer  not  only  sincerity,  spirituality,  and  de- 
votion, but  a  clear  head  and  an  active  brain. 

How  shall  I  order  my  life  ?  I  must  first  under- 
stand and  accept  the  Law  of  Utmost  Service. 
Then  to  every  question  of  giving  or  withhold- 
ing, of  ambition  or  renunciation,  ease  or  hard- 
ship, work  or  play,  war  or  peace,  contemplation 
or  action,  of  beauty  or  ugliness,  poetry  or  prose, 
knowledge     or    ignorance,    of    art,    literature. 


to  tlbe  Xaw  of  Service 

society,  politics,  commerce — to  every  question  I 
must  bring  that  law.  If  by  withholding  I  may 
do  more  good  than  by  giving,  no  sentiment  must 
prevent  my  saying  no.  If  by  giving  I  may  serve 
more  effectively,  I  must  give  at  whatever  cost. 
If  my  greatest  usefulness,  if  the  greatest  ulti- 
mate advancement  of  well-being  demands  that 
the  four  quarters  cf  the  globe  be  laid  under  con- 
tribution for  my  culture,  my  comfort,  my  amuse- 
ment even,  I  must  needs  enforce  the  claim  at 
whatever  cost  to  the  productive  power  of  man- 
kind. A  man  may  believe  that  the  issues  of  life 
are  too  serious  to  admit  of  his  enjoying  its 
luxuries,  or  even  its  comforts  ;  that  literature  is 
demoralizing,  art  is  frivolous,  and  beauty  a 
snare  ;  that  to  gratify  the  natural  appetites  and 
desires  is  a  profanation.  The  mediaeval  ideal  is 
the  ideal  for  him.  Let  him  give  up  all — he  can 
do  no  other.  Another  man  may  say,  "  What 
fools  these  mortals  be  !  "  He  may  believe  that 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  to  come  largely 
through  "  the  influence  of  Jesus  upon  the  intel- 
lect "  of  mankind  ;  through  the  application  to 
the  problems  of  life  of  the  enlarged  common 
,  sense,  the  trained  reason,  the  clear  intelligence 
I  of  the  scholar.  He  may  believe  himself  a 
chosen  instrument  to  inform  the  intellect 
through  literary  production  or  scholarly  research. 
He  may  feel  divinely  called  to  a  work  which 
cannot  be  done  without  books,  travel,  society, 
aesthetic   culture,   immunity    from   ugly   annoy- 


2)ut^  of  tbc  flnDiviDual  n 

ances,  wholesome  conditions  of  living,  all  those 
costly  accessories  which  seem  essential  to  his 
highest  intellectual  activity.  He  must  needs  be 
trained  and  cared  for  like  a  race-horse  or  a 
prima  donna.  For  such  an  one  there  is  no 
choice.  Cost  what  they  will,  the  conditions  of 
his  highest  usefulness  must  be  provided. 
Another  believes  in  civilization  and  material 
progress  as  best  opening  the  way  for  dissemina- 
tion of  truth  and  promotion  of  the  spiritual  wel- 
fare of  men.  In  his  view,  progress  in  civiliza- 
tion requires  that  culture  which  comes  from  the 
concentration  of  wealth,  and  material  advance- 
ment is  best  secured  by  the  vast  organization  of 
business  which  goes  with  individual  control  of 
enormous  means.  He  feels  himself  a  born  cap- 
tain of  industry,  a  born  aristocrat  ;  and  he  verily 
believes  that  by  the  methods  of  monopoly  on  the 
one  hand  and  social  exclusiveness  on  the  other, 
he  may  best  do  his  duty  to  the  masses.  Such  an 
one,  also,  has  no  choice.  If  his  theory  is  right, 
wealth  and  magnificence  are  his  duty.  Another 
believes  in  "plain  living  and,  high  thinking." 
To  him  private  magnificence  is  vulgar,  social 
display  foolish  and  empty,  luxury  enervating. 
He  bethinks  him  of  the  poverty  of  Socrates,  the 
blithe  homeliness  of  Emerson.  He  is  convinced 
that  with  temperance  and  serenity  he  may  do  the 
best  that  is  in  him  at  small  cost  and  with  small 
ceremony.  It  is  his  happy  privilege,  then,  to 
live  and  to  give  like  a  philosopher. 


12  tlbe  ILaw  ot  Service 

That  the  writer's  attitude  towards  these  vari- 
ous theories  is  by  no  means  one  of  indifference, 
the  sequel  will  show.  Just  now  we  are  con- 
cerned with  the  principle  to  which  every  decision 
should  be  referred.  Our  mission  in  the  world, 
then,  is  to  do  the  utmost  possible  good.  In  de- 
ciding for  or  against  any  given  course  of  action, 
we  must  take  into  account  all  its  bearings,  direct 
and  indirect,  near  and  remote,  upon  the  gen- 
eral welfare  and  work  out  the  problem  as  best 
we  may.  Personal  preference,  in  itself  alone 
considered,  has  as  much  to  do  with  the  decision 
as  with  determining  the  orbit  of  a  satellite  of 
Mars.     "  Even  Christ  pleased  not  himself." 


^^M 

.^jrat^|^»™B| 

IB 

ngd^l^^ 

^ 

^^H 

IV. 

THEORETICAL  TEACHING  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

1 T  may  be  said  that  an  ideal  of  complete  devo- 
^  tion  to  the  salvation  of  men  is  nothing  new  ; 
that  such  an  ideal  has  been  held  up  from  Christ's 
day  to  this ;  that  every  intelligent  Christian  accepts 
it  and  tries  to  square  his  life  by  it.  Certainly  we  are 
not  announcing  a  new  discovery.  Exactly  what 
is  claimed  for  the  thesis  here  advanced  is  that  it 
belongs  to  the  old  and  open  truth,  and  is  the 
plain  teaching  of  Christ.  All  through  the  Chris- 
tian centuries,  doubtless,  complete  devotion  has 
been  preached  ;  but  we  must  be  excused  from 
accepting  as  our  standard  a  devotion  which  is 
merely  the  equivalent  of  religiousness,  and  is 
consistent  with  bigotry,  with  cruelty,  with  defi- 
ance of  the  wholesome  laws  of  nature  and  rea- 
son. The  completer  the  devotion  of  Philip  the 
Second,  the  worse  for  the  Christian  who  dared 
think  for  himself.  Devotion  to  what  ?  To  the 
name  of  Christ,  or  to  his  work  ?  An  ideal  of 
complete  devotion,  moreover,  is  doubtless  ac- 
cepted by  intelligent  Christians  to-day.     Never- 

13 


14  ^bc  Xaw  ot  Service 

theless,  before  we  can  grant  that  no  more  need 
be  said,  we  must  find  out  what  that  ideal  means 
to  those  who  accept  it,  and  what  their  accept- 
ance of  it  means  for  them  and  for  the  world. 
Language  serves  so  effectually  not  only  to 
"  conceal  thought  "  but  to  conceal  the  want  of 
it  or  the  perversion  of  it  that  we  have  no  right 
to  be  satisfied  with  a  phrase.  We  must  go  be- 
hind phrases  to  facts.  We  inquire  first,  then, 
into  the  popular  teaching  of  Christianity.  The 
writer's  observation  and  impressions  will  have 
weight  with  the  reader  if  confirmed  by  his  own. 
Exceptions  and  qualifications  must  often  be  left 
to  the  reader's  intelligence  ;  it  is  enough  if  what 
we  affirm  is  substantially  true. 

Public  prayer,  though  it  may  not  be  didactic 
in  purpose,  is  an  effective  means  of  teaching, 
and  should  reflect  the  views  of  the  teacher.  In- 
deed if  he  is  very  much  in  earnest,  prayer  may 
express  his  real  beliefs  more  truly  than  any 
formal  statements  he  is  capable  of  making. 
\\'hcre  a  ritual  is  not  used  it  is  interesting  to 
notice  the  preponderance  of  the  pronouns  of  the 
first  person  plural.  To  one  accustomed  to 
think  of  Christianity  as  generous  and  public- 
spirited,  it  is  not  only  interesting,  but  painfully 
so,  this  assumption  of  the  minister  to  represent 
and  express  the  corporate  egotism  of  the  church. 
Often  and  often  he  seems  to  have  forgotten  the 
largeness  of  the  world  and  to  be  quite  unmoved 
by  the  powerful  appeal  of  its  need.    The  thought 


^beoretical  XLcacbim  ot  tbe  Cburcb        15 


of  fairness  in  letting  the  public  services  of  the 
church  express  the  breadth  of  its  doctrine  seems 
as  foreign  to  his  mind  as  any  scruple  of  good 
taste  about  this  reiterated  "  We."  Quite  har- 
monious with  the  narrow  thought  and  sympathy 
thus  advertised  is  the  conspicuous  infrequency 
in  many  pulpits  of  allusion  to  civil  rulers  and 
lawmakers,  or  even  to  "  our  "  country  and  com- 
monwealth. The  pronoun  is  not  vindicated  by 
relating  it  to  any  large  substantive.  The  prayer- 
book,  with  its  noble  and  fitting  recognition  of 
the  State,  is  a  refreshment  by  contrast.  The 
language  of  public  prayer  abounds  in  religious 
sentiment,  even  where  it  does  not  too  broadly 
suggest  the  sentimental.  It  might  abound  in 
poetry,  without  being  therefore  Christian  or 
philanthropic.  Poetry  is  good,  but  it  is  not 
Christianity.  Religious  sentiment  is  good,  but 
neither  is  it  Christianity. 

But  does  the  sermon,  as  might  perhaps  be  ex- 
pected, take  a  broader  and  more  generous  view 
of  things  ?  The  preaching  of  to-day  is  hardly 
doctrinal  ;  it  would  doubtless  claim  to  be  prac- 
tical. It  is,  in  fact,  far  too  largely,  perfunctory 
and  sentimental.  In  need  of  spiritual  enlarge- 
ment through  the  truth,  we  are  given  the  old, 
familiar  "  sermonizing."  Introduction,  "  which 
may  be  skipt  ";  body  of  the  discourse,  "  words, 
words,  words,"  in  the  air  ;  conclusion,  "  lame 
and  impotent  "  or  respectably  commonplace,  it 
matters  little.     Craving  the  speech  of  a  living 


i6  Zbc  Xaw  of  Service 

man,  we  have  been  given  the  function  of  a 
functionary  ;  of  something  other  than  a  man, 
be  it  more  or  less.  If  the  preacher,  imitating 
the  popular  lecture  in  its  decadence,  merely 
strings  together  a  series  of  anecdotes  and  illus- 
trations, he  may  be  more  entertaining,  but  less 
respectable.  If  he  be  fervid,  the  chances  are 
large  that  his  fervor  is  that  of  the  narrow- 
minded  prayer,  or  else  dwells  on  the  one  topic 
of  conversion,  neglecting  the  question  what  we 
are  to  be  converted  to,  what  we  are  to  do  in  the 
world  while  awaiting  our  reward  in  heaven. 
The  exhorter's  converts,  but  scantily  furnished 
in  doctrine,  soon  fail  in  emotion.  They  fall 
into  conventional  ways,  and  expect  things  to  go 
on  pretty  much  as  they  have  done.  Expressly 
or  by  implication,  the  preacher  recognizes  some 
high  standard  of  attainment.  What  that  stand- 
ard is,  or,  if  it  be  perfection,  perfection  in  what, 
it  might  puzzle  the  average  layman  to  tell.  Is 
it  perfect  goodness  ?  But  in  what  does  perfect 
goodness  consist  ?  Perfect  morality,  perhaps, 
and  perfect  religiousness  combined.  Perfect 
morality  is  understood  to  imply  certain  absten- 
tions. The  scope  of  its  obligation,  just  what 
acts  are  immoral  and  what,  if  any,  are  indiffer- 
ent or  non-moral,  our  layman  may  not  know  ; 
and  he  gets  all  too  little  help  from  his  public 
teacher.  The  result  is  that  many  actions  which 
may  be  of  vital  importance  in  tlicir  relation  to 
character  and  welfare  are  treated  as  if  they  were 


^beoretical  (Teacbiitcj  ot  tbc  Cbiircb        17 

non-moral  or  indifferent.  Persons  of  middle 
age  can  recall  how  preachers  of  the  old  school 
used  to  demolish  the  citadel  of  the  "Moralist," 
as  of  a  dangerous  enemy  to  the  faith.  Doubt- 
less in  many  cases  they  were  fighting  a  real 
antagonist.  Some  of  their  less  virile  and  logical 
successors  deal  so  little  with  the  general  conduct 
of  life  as  to  suggest  the  fear  of  being  taken  for 
moralists  themselves.  It  is  clear  to  the  student 
of  history  and  the  observer  of  human  life  that 
great  religious  zeal  may  co-exist  not  only  with 
neglect  of  fraternal  duty,  but  with  cruel  injus- 
tice. Religiousness  needs  to  be  mixed  with  a 
large  ingredient  of  usefulness  to  keep  it  whole- 
some. The  scripture  statement  about  "  pure 
religion  and  undefiled  "  deserves  a  great  deal 
more  attention  than  the  clergy  give  it.  A  high 
degree  of  religious  emotion,  again,  is  so  remote 
from  the  ordinary  experience  of  many  well-dis- 
posed church-goers,  if  not  from  their  ordinary 
capacity,  that  its  phraseology  is  to  them  a  kind 
of  unknown  tongue.  With  a  "  genius  for  re- 
ligion "  one  may  luxuriate  in  religious  experi- 
ence as  such.  So  with  a  genius  for  poetry  one 
may  spend  his  days  and  nights  with  the  great 
singers.  But  as  most  of  us  must  pluck  the 
rarest  flowers  of  poesy  in  the  rare  moments  of 
quickened  imagination,  so  we  must  live  our  re- 
ligion in  humble  ways,  and  rise  to  its  conscious 
exaltations  according  as  our  life  has  developed 
the  capacity,  and  monotonous  hard  work  ad- 


i8  Q:bc  Uaw  Of  Service 

mils  of  favorable  occasions.  Genuine  filial  love 
is  not  ordinarily  rapture.  To  be  filled  with  the 
Spirit,  we  may  believe,  is  not  always  to  be  con- 
sciously inspired.  To  begin  with  trying  to  be 
rapturous,  and  let  the  theory  and  practice  of 
righteousness  wait,  would  seem  to  be  a  disastrous 
mistake. 

What  has  been  said  of  official  prayer  and  of 
preaching  applies,  perhaps  more  forcibly,  to 
the  less  public  exercises  of  the  church.  The 
feebleness  and  inconsequence  of  the  average 
prayer-meeting  need  only  be  mentioned.  The 
inefficiency  of  the  secular  school  is  bad 
enough  ;  but  that  of  the  Sunday-school  is 
monumental.  Of  the  little  which  is  effectually 
taught  there  it  is  to  be  feared  that  only  a  little 
fraction  is  the  doctrine  of  usefulness  in  the 
world. 

The  results  of  the  various  church  "  services  " 
are  probably  more  than  merely  conservative,  but 
only  by  a  small  annual  percentage.  The  fact  of 
chief  significance  for  our  purpose  is  that  the 
church  and  those  who  assemble  with  it  are  not 
definitely  and  effectively  taught  the  duty  of 
entire  self-giving,  of  utmost  service  to  men. 
Some  effort  to  urge  that  duty  and  the  views  of 
life  which  it  logically  involves  has  raised  the 
suspicion  that  people  do  not  understand  what 
such  teaching  means.  So  far  from  being 
familiar   with  the  Law   of   Service   by    having 


tTbcorcticnl  ^cacblno  of  tbe  Cburcb        19 

thought  it  out,  they  do  not  seem  to  give  it 
serious  consideration  when  presented.  Our 
Christian  thinking  is  not  well  accustomed  to 
radical  views  of  duty.  It  is  not  adjusted  to 
the  simplicity  of  the  truth,  nor  prepared  to 
accept  its  implications. 


V. 

PRACTICAL  TEACHING  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

T^HE  agitation  in  church  circles  over  recent 
*  phases  of  the  old  controversy  between 
conservatives  and  liberals  has  been  significant 
in  bringing  out  bold  affirmation  of  the  old 
severe  doctrines,  and  showing  how  widespread 
among  religious  leaders  is  a  theoretical  ad- 
herence to  them.  Modifications  these  doctrines 
have  undergone,  in  phraseology  or  in  substance  ; 
but  it  is  seen  that  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  very  serious  and  uncompromising,  and 
its  denunciation  of  doom  for  the  wicked,  coupled 
with  the  solemn  charge  to  bring  all  nations  to 
repentance,  is  recognized  in  the  common  creed 
of  the  evangelical  churches.  Now  the  work  of 
missions  is  crippled  to-day,  not  merely  nor 
chiefly  by  doctrinal  controversy  and  want  of 
harmony  in  counsel,  but  because  the  churches, 
professedly  believing  in  the  work  and  certainly 
able  to  support  it,  will  not  back  the  workers. 
Many  of  these  churches  worship  in  costly  build- 
ings and  support  their  ministers  in   affluence. 

20 


iPractical  tleacbina  ot  tbe  Cburcb         21 


Their  members  spend  on  horses  and  carriages, 
on  servants,  on  houses  and  grounds,  on  foreign 
travel,  on  social  functions  and  the  luxuries  of 
the  table,  on  cigars  and  in  too  many  cases  on 
intoxicating  drinks,  and  in  general  on  needless 
personal  indulgences,  enormous  sums  of  money 
which  are  needed  for  missionary  enterprise  and 
might  be  carrying  light  into  the  darkness  of 
heathendom.  One  hears  little  against  the  claims 
of  missions.  Indeed  there  is  some  jealousy  lest 
the  peril  of  the  heathen  be  minimized,  and  men 
who  cherished  some  "  larger  hope  "  have  found 
it  an  obstacle  in  their  way  to  the  missionary 
field.  Nevertheless  the  contribution  of  money 
and  men  is  so  contemptibly  small — in  all  sober- 
ness be  it  said — as  to  be  a  most  effective  satire 
on  the  doctrine.  The  well-to-do  orthodox  say 
in  effect :  "  The  heathen  are  going  to  perdition, 
body  and  soul,  but  it  will  cost  too  much  to  save 
them — let  them  go." 

The  cry  of  the  poor  at  home  is  making  itself 
heard.  These  church  members  know  that  the 
poorer  quarters  of  the  great  cities  grovel  in  filth, 
moan  with  pain,  reek  with  moral  corruption, 
threaten  civil  orderwiththe  ever-muttering  "vol- 
cano under  the  city."  The  problems  to  which 
this  state  of  things  gives  rise  are  by  no  means 
solved,  and  the  eradication  of  poverty  and  vice 
is  hard,  slow  work  at  the  best  ;  but  certain 
means  of  help  and  alleviation  have  been  found. 
The  fresh-air  fund,  the  college  settlement,  tene- 


22  Zbc  Xaw  ot  Service 

ment  reform,  charity  organization,  church  work 
for  the  masses  in  various  forms, — such  in- 
strumentalities and  activities  as  these  make  it 
possible  to  do  something  effective  for  the 
welfare  of  the  poor.  That  this  doing  is  wickedly 
neglected  by  church  members  their  luxurious 
living  and  the  poverty  of  the  charities  conclu- 
sively show.  "  Let  the  rich  man  have  his 
yacht,"  says  a  famous  metropolitan  preacher 
whose  orthodoxy,  we  believe,  stands  high,  "  Let 
the  rich  man  have  his  yacht,  provided,"  etc. 
Let  us  have  a  parenthesis  of  common-sense  ! 
The  rich  man  could  get  on  very  well  without 
his  yacht,  and  God's  poor  are  going  to  perdi- 
tion for  want  of  just  the  succor  that  its  cost 
might  send  them.  Let  us  think  how  it  would 
sound  to  say  :  "  Let  Jesus  Christ  have  his 
yacht,  his  tally-ho  coach,  his  palace  in  town,  his 
magnificent  country  seat,  provided  he  will  give 
on  a  like  scale  for  benevolent  objects."  Christ 
had  to  give  all  ;  we  compliment  the  rich  man  if 
he  gives  a  handsome  percentage  ! 

Hawthorne  says  of  his  "new  Adam  and  Eve," 
as  they  wonderingly  examine  a  modern  city, 
deserted  by  every  living  thing  at  the  sound  of 
the  last  trumpet  : 

"  But  how  will  they  explain  the  magnificence 
of  one  habitation  as  compared  with  the  squalid 
misery  of  another  ?  Through  what  medium  can 
the  idea  of  servitude  enter  their  minds  ?  When 
will  they  comprehend  the  great  and   miserable 


IPractical  ZTeacbfng  of  tbe  Cburcb         23 

fact — the  evidences  of  which  appeal  to  their 
senses  everywhere — that  one  portion  of  earth's 
lost  inhabitants  was  rolling  in  luxury  while  the 
multitude  was  toiling  for  scanty  food  ?  A 
wretched  change,  indeed,  must  be  wrought  in 
their  own  hearts  ere  they  can  conceive  the 
primal  decree  of  love  to  have  been  so  completely 
abrogated  that  a  brother  should  ever  want  what 
his  brother  had." 

Genius  must  needs  see  into  this  iniquity  of 
things.  Common  sense  is  enough,  provided  we 
use  it. 

Not  long  since  a  preacher  of  exceptional 
ability  and  breadth  illustrated  the  triumph  of 
piety  over  distress  by  a  most  harrowing  picture 
of  life  in  an  almshouse.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
the  body  of  the  discourse  moved  one  of  his 
many  well-fed  hearers  to  any  thought  of  self- 
denial  for  sweet  charity's  sake.  The  illustra- 
tion, powerful  in  its  appeal  to  benevolent  im- 
pulses and  its  lesson  of  duty,  was  made 
subordinate  to  the  development  of  an  old  and 
well  worn  theme.  The  incident  was  impressive 
as  an  example  of  how  the  church  is  dealing  with 
the  people  under  its  influence.  They  are  not 
fools,  nor  wholly  thoughtless.  They  have  not 
only  Moses  and  the  prophets,  but  the  gospel.  In 
many  cases  the  eloquence  of  an  angel  would 
hardly  move  them  to  direct  endeavor  for  per- 
sonal sainthood.  Many  of  them  have  perhaps 
unconsciously  but  decisively  broken  with  pietism, 


24  trbc  Xaw  ot  Sctvice 

and  taken  up  Avith  respectable  and  unrebuked 
self-seeking.  They  have  not  the  religious  tem- 
perament, and  religiousness  is  not  in  the  air. 
Consciousness  of  easy  intellectual  superiority  to 
much  with  which  religion  is  associated,  together 
with  the  weakened  hold  of  dogma — a  natural 
incident  of  this  period  of  criticism  and  readjust- 
ment— makes  them  proof  against  ordinary  ap- 
peals. Yet  they  are  not  malignant  ;  they  are 
self-indulgent  because  in  their  little  world  it  is 
conventional  to  be  so,  and  customary  to  take 
the  disjointed  state  of  the  times  as  a  matter  of 
course.  If  they  are  above  the  Sir  Leicester  Ded- 
lock  type  of  conservatism,  they  are  not  above 
the  easy  irresponsibility  of  priest  and  Levite. 
While  venturing  the  suggestion  that  under  present 
conditions  the  spiritual  natures  of  such  people 
may  best  be  reached  by  enforcing  the  Law  of 
Love  as  a  Law  of  Service,  we  are  chiefly  con- 
cerned to  point  out  here  that  the  church  is  not 
winning  them  either  to  spirituality  or  to  self- 
denial.  Itself  negligent  of  philanthropy,  it  does 
not  and  cannot  enlist  them  in  the  active  service 
of  mankind. 

The  glowing  imagery  of  Isaiah,  his  prophecies 
of  deliverance  and  joy,  have  not  their  fulfib 
ment  in  the  distress  of  the  myriad  poor,  the 
injustice  and  oppression  of  the  rich,  the  disfig- 
urement of  tlie  world  with  sordidness  and  vice. 
The  commission  to  disciple  all  nations  was 
given  many  ages  ago.     To-day  but  a  minority 


Ipiractical  ^cacbina  of  tbe  Cburcb 


in  so-called  Christian  lands  are  reckoned  as 
disciples,  and  the  foreign  work  is  carried  on  by 
a  handful  of  missionaries  supported  by  a  pit- 
tance of  money.  The  gospel  of  peace  is  pro- 
claimed in  the  churches,  but  the  nations  are 
burdened  with  the  maintenance  of  armies,  and 
inventive  genius  toils  at  new  engineries  of  de- 
struction. The  poet  of  pessimism  who  should 
tune  his  harp  to  bewail  the  badness  of  things 
would  be  embarrassed  with  wealth  of  material. 

The  church  takes  this  as  a  matter  of  course. 
The  thought  that  it  need  not,  the  resolve  that  it 
shall  not  be,  seems  to  have  found  no  lodgment 
in  the  mind  of  the  church  as  a  whole.  All  the 
activities  of  the  religious  world,  vast  as  they  are, 
go  on  like  a  melancholy,  unhopeful  effort  to  save 
a  few  brands  from  the  burning,  to  disciple  a 
few  of  the  elect  for  a  future  paradise,  here  in  the 
midst  of  an  incorrigibly  crooked  and  perverse 
generation.  The  church,  however  cheerful  in 
its  godliness,  is  giving  a  sad  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion, "  Are  there  few  that  be  saved  ?  "  If  it  in- 
dulges an  optimistic  hope  that  somehow  the 
Almighty  will  take  care  of  the  unfortunate,  and 
cherishes  a  reassuring  theory  that  somehow  evil 
is  not  so  very  evil  after  all,  and  a  little  more  or 
less  of  it  does  not  matter,  it  seems  to  a  layman 
to  do  so  in  defiance  of  its  creeds,  and  strangely 
ignoring  the  solemnity  of  its  scriptures. 

The  opportunity  of  the  church  to-day  is  mag- 
nificent, its  motives  to  action  most  potent  and 


26  ^be  Xaw  of  Service 

inspiring,  its  responsibility  appalling.  By  its 
disproportionate  dwelling  upon  trite  themes 
pertaining  to  personal  experience  and  personal 
religious  culture,  its  failure  to  expound  and 
emphasize  the  duty  of  giving  self  and  substance, 
and  its  own  self-indulgent  neglect  of  the  things^ 
that  need  to  be  done  in  the  world,  the  church  is 
doing  much  towards  the  practical  teaching  of  an 
egotistical  and  sentimental  laissez  faire. 


•y) 

1 

^ft\ 

)^ 

i 

1 

^ 

^ 

^ 
^'^ 

^ 

^ 

^fts 

^iPi^l? 

i/l^'C 

^% 

lis}. 

^^ 

VI. 

OUR  POSITION  DEFINED. 

WE  have  shown  that  the  teaching  of  Christ  in- 
volves the  Law  of  Utmost  Service.  We 
have  criticised  the  Church  of  Christ  for  so  largely 
ignoring  this  law,  both  in  theory  and  in  practice. 
In  this  criticism,  and  in  some  exposition  of 
what  the  law  means  and  implies,  we  can  hardly 
have  failed  to  indicate  that  the  full  acceptance 
of  it  would  involve  great  and  radical  changes. 

It  would  be  plausible  to  say  in  objection  that, 
however  great  the  force  of  the  considerations 
presented  as  to  certain  things  to  be  done  in  the 
world,  it  will  not  do  to  narrow  our  conception 
of  the  ideal  man  to  that  of  a  most  efficient  work- 
man under  temporary  and  abnormal  conditions. 
So  far  from  disputing  this,  we  affirm  that  the 
broadest  ideal  of  manhood  should  be  sought  for 
in  theory  and  constantly  set  before  us  in  prac- 
tice. We  maintain,  further,  that  any  narrowing 
of  the  conception  of  manhood  will  on  the  whole 
give  us  less  effective  workmen,  even  for  the  work 
incident  to  temporary  and  abnormal  conditions. 

27 


v^ 


28  tlbc  Xaw  of  Service 

Again,  in  deciding  the  complex  and  difficult 
questions  which  daily  life  presents  under  the 
Law  of  Service,  we  shall  be  and  ought  to  be 
materially  influenced  by  our  views  as  to  the  ideal 
man  in  his  relations,  for  example,  to  the  beauti- 
ful. To  illustrate  specifically,  our  attitude  of 
mind  with  reference  to  music  in  itself  considered 
will  rightly  have  to  do  with  our  actions  con- 
cerning public  worship,  education,  social  usages, 
and  personal  careers.  Without  going  deep  into 
the  theory  of  ethics,  and  philosophizing  on  the 
relation  of  virtue  to  happiness,  we  may  say  once 
for  all  that  in  our  conception  the  ideal  man  is 
perfect  not  only  in  devotion,  but  in  strength, 
beauty,  and  joy — 7^ie?7S  sana  in  corpore  sano. 
Tliis  does  not  mean  that  any  good  thing  is  in- 
dependent of  righteousness  ;  much  less  that  any 
good  thing  can  be  in  conflict  with  it.  Righteous- 
ness, Tightness,  right,  is  one.  The  sphere  of  the 
good  is  nowhere  outside  of  the  sphere  of  the 
right.  Whatsoever  things  are  good,  whatsoever 
things  are  lovely,  are  organic  parts  of  the  All  of 
Righteousness.  The  forms  of  beauty  are  the 
forms  of  law.  Joy  is  health,  and  health  is  con- 
formity to  law.  Ugliness  and  joylessness  are  in 
conflict  with  the  Law  of  Service.  No  hint  of 
beauty  and  of  innocent  delight  in  all  the  uni- 
verse, no  elemental  stirring  of  passion,  no  instinct 
for  fulness  of  living,  no  uplift  of  the  imagina- 
tion, but  is  an  utterance  of  the  Almighty,  which 
we  neglect  at  our  i)eril.      Following  where  truth 


®ur  iposition  H)efine&  29 

leads,  let  us  shun  the  falsehood  of  asceticism,  as 
well  as  the  impiety  of  license.  All  we  need  in- 
sist on — and  for  that  our  whole  discourse  is  a 
plea — is  mental  and  moral  perspective,  the  ap- 
prehension of  things  as  they  are,  and  in  their 
right  relations  each  to  all. 

Just  thinking,  which  must  be  independent  and 
unconventional,  dealing  with  things  at  first  hand, 
will  still  bring  us  back  to  the  Law  of  Service, 
and  re-affirm  its  obligation  all  the  more  con- 
vincingly because  it  has  honestly  weighed  all 
evidence,  and  fairly  considered  all  claims.  The 
unity  of  the  moral  law  will  still  be  vindicated, 
grounded  as  it  is  in  the  unity  of  God.  The 
hierarchy  of  truths,  subsisting  in  the  oneness  of 
the  truth,  will  stand  as  against  the  anarchy  of 
conflicting  doctrines.  In  a  word,  subordination 
of  the  lesser  to  the  greater  good,  of  individual- 
ism to  the  common  weal,  will  be  the  teaching  of 
the  most  enlightened  reason.  Our  law  will  stand 
unshaken  ;  its  implications  concerning  the  con- 
duct of  life,  to  the  least  detail,  will  admit  of  no 
exception  or  evasion. 

The  chapters  which  follow,  dealing  with  the 
bearings  and  applications  of  the  doctrine  we 
have  formulated,  may  serve  both  to  develop  its 
contents  more  fully,  and  to  strengthen  the  read- 
er's conviction  of  its  soundness.  Whether  that 
law  is  often  mentioned  or  not,  every  subject  will 
be  considered  with  constant  reference  to  the 
Law  of  Service. 


VII. 

THE  FELICITY  OF  SERVICE. 

CAR  from  concealing  the  fact,  we  have  been 
^  disposed  to  give  it  emphasis,  that  the  view 
here  advocated  is  radical,  far-reaching,  and  in 
some  measure  austere.  On  the  other  hand  we 
must  guard  against  misconception  by  affirming 
most  heartily  that  under  the  Law  of  Service  life 
is  wholesome  and  attractive. 

Felicity  is  found  in  health  and  in  the  normal 
exercise  of  the  powers.  If  the  Christian  ideal 
be  of  contemplation,  it  does  not  mean  health  for 
man  as  God  made  him.  If  it  be  of  spiritual 
striving,  it  means  a  fire  which  shall  burn  up  the 
body,  and  perhaps  involve  the  mind  in  its  ruin. 
If  it  be  of  asceticism,  it  means  neglect  of  much 
that  belongs  to  the^^;/7/i-  homo  as  such  ;  it  means 
sainthood,  not  symmetry,  a  joy  of  devotion 
doubtless,  but  not  that  jubilancy  with  which  the 
poetry  of  the  ( )ld  Testament  invests  the  world, 
or  that  sweet  human  happiness  upon  which  he 
smiled  who  made  wine  for  the  wedding  feast, 
and  bade  us  "  consider  the  lilies." 

30 


^be  jfelicit^  ot  Service  31 

If  the  Christian  ideal  be  of  utmost  service,  it 
means  complete  manhood  and  womanhood  ;  it 
means  that  harmony  and  balance  of  the  powers 
without  which  the  greatest  efficiency  in  good 
works  is  impossible.  The  question  is  not  of 
material  progress,  which  in  our  day  nothing 
short  of  anarchy  could  stop.  The  accumulation 
of  capital  is  already  enormous,  and  the  requi- 
sites for  wholesome  living  would  be  easy  to  get 
for  all  men  were  all  men  just  and  diligent. 
Moreover,  from  the  economic  standpoint,  it  is 
clear  enough  that  the  maintenance  of  those  con- 
ditions of  peace  and  justice  on  which  material 
welfare  depends,  will  require  the  conservative 
force  of  righteousness,  not  to  speak  of  the  re- 
form of  institutions  through  aggressive  Chris- 
tianity. The  question  is  of  moral  progress,  of 
spiritual  life,  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  whose 
constitution  is  in  the  Law  of  Love,  whose  work- 
ing rule  is  the  Law  of  Service.  This  being 
true,  the  manhood  which  will  be  of  most  use  in 
the  world  is  of  no  maimed  or  morbid  type  ;  no 
product  of  excessive  specialization  or  excessive 
labor.  Certainly  it  is  not  something  less  or 
worse  than  manhood.  It  is  not  something 
greater  or  better,  for  nothing  greater  or  better  is 
possible  to  man  than  the  perfection  of  himself. 
Being  what  we  are  by  natural  constitution,  the 
Law  of  Service  bids  us  by  self-development  and 
self-correction,  under  the  favoring  guidance  of 
our  Maker,  to  approximate  the  perfection  of  our 


32  Cbe  3La\v  ot  Service 


li  11  mail  nature,  that  so  we  may  not  only  exem- 
plify it  for  the  imitation  of  other  men,  but  do 
most  efficiently  whatever  is  the  divinely  ordered 
task  of  a  man.  What  more  attractive  than  the 
life  of  health,  of  growth  towards  perfectness,  of 
workmanlike  endeavor  ?  Again,  the  Law  of 
Service  gives  life  a  meaning.  It  answers,  or 
makes  us  forget  to  ask,  that  weary  question  of 
the  day,  "  Is  life  worth  living  ?  "  What  has  been 
said  will  hold  true  if  we  have  to  admit  that  the 
joy  of  health  in  its  perfection  is  for  none  of  us, 
and  that  for  many  life  must  be  in  some  sense 
"  one  long  disease."  If  we  accept  this  law  we 
may  hope  not  to  be  overmuch  concerned  about 
ourselves — a  prime  condition  of  felicity — be- 
cause the  altruistic  excludes  the  egoistic  impulse. 
Contentment  and  good  cheer  under  the  ills  of 
life  has  been  the  experience  of  countless  helpful 
souls  who  have  somehow  accepted  their  Maker's 
assurance  that  their  life  was  not  lived  in  vain  ; 
that  he  would  not  mock  them,  nor  put  them  to 
permanent  intellectual  confusion.  Pluck  is  no 
uncommon  gift  ;  heroism  is  displayed  in  the  in- 
cidents of  every  passing  day.  Given  a  meaning 
of  life,  the  generous  spirit  may  even  exult  in  en- 
during hardness  "  as  a  good  soldier."  Pleasure 
is  not  always  attainable,  as  its  votaries  know  too 
well,  nor  desirable,  as  they  often  learn  when 
they  pay  its  price  ;  but  the  joy  of  service  may 
dwell  even  with  pain  and  want.  With  this  goes 
hope  of  larger  service  and  more  unmingled  hap- 


Zbc  3f  elicit^  of  Service  33 

piness  to  come  ;  but  the  energetic  working  spirit 
does  not  aspire  to  an  immortality  of  idleness, 
nor  brood  discontentedly  over  its  hope  of  future 
deliverance.  Were  ignorance  of  the  next  world 
ten  times  what  it  is,  yet  life  is  rich  in  present 
opportunity  ;  were  there  no  promise  of  immor- 
tality, yet  a  spirit  touched  to  fine  issues  would 
find  its  own  life  great.  Sublime,  however  cir- 
cumscribed, is  that  aspiration  of  George  Eliot  : 

*'  O  may  I  join  the  choir  invisible     . 

Whose  music  is  the  gladness  of  the  world  !  " 

But  promise  of  immortality  there  is,  not  only 
in  our  sacred  books,  but  in  our  invincible  faith 
and  the  consent  of  enlightened  reason  ;  and 
with  all  the  vast  aggregate  of  evil  in  this  present 
world  there  is  the  immeasurable  well-being  of 
conscious  life,  harmonious  with  the  order  of  the 
universe.  If  the  ugly,  the  painful,  and  the 
cruel  are  conspicuous,  it  is  on  a  background  of 
beauty  and  happy  innocence.  One  wounded 
sparrow  moves  our  compassion,  yet  the  fields 
are  filled  with  cheerful  song.  Brave  earth,  blue 
heaven,  and  the  light  of  stars  are  a  perennial 
revelation  of  God,  which  meets  perennial  re- 
sponse of  gladness.  To  the  natural  felicities  of 
our  being,  the  life  of  service  adds  the  keen  zest 
of  battle  with  evil,  the  supreme  felicity  of  love 
uttering  itself  in  action.  It  is*the  life  of  present 
achievement  and  of  reasonable  hope. 


VIII. 
RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE. 

IT  is  rather  a  commonplace  that  happiness  is 
*  not  to  be  got  by  direct  pursuit.  It  comes 
with  self-forgetfulness,  not  with  over-developed 
self-consciousness.  The  poet,  to  whom  we  have 
rightly  ascribed  some  sort  and  measure  of  in- 
spiration, does  not  sit  down  and  try  to  work 
himself  into  an  ecstasy  ;  neither  does  he  expect 
to  receive  "  the  vision  and  the  faculty  divine  " 
by  miraculous  gift. 

"  Coy  Hebe  flies  from  those  that  woo, 

And  shuns  the  hands  would  seize  upon  her  ; 
Follow  thy  life,  and  she  will  sue 
To  pour  for  thee  the  cup  of  honor." 


Wholesome  inward  experiences  commonly  at- 
tend on  wholesome  outward  activities,  through 
which,  in  turn,  they  are  expressed  and  revealed. 
Perception  of  the  truth  and  action  according  to 
it,  right  thinking  and  right  conduct — these  are 

He  that  will  do 
34 


the  conditions  of  right  feeling. 


IReligtous  ]£jperience  35 

the  will  shall  know  of  the  doctrine  ;  and  he  shall 
know  of  the  experience  also. 

Insanity  is  one  extreme  development  of  re- 
ligious egoism  ;  the  unreasoning  excesses  of 
fanaticism  are  another — if,  indeed,  they  are  not 
a  form  of  insanity  ;  the  selfish  luxury  of  emotion 
is  another,  and  perhaps  the  most  common  and 
the  meanest.  Some  excitation  of  feeling,  some 
occasional  glow  of  sentiment,  and  a  life  of  idle- 
ness, or  frivolity,  or  self-seeking,  or  ruthless  ex- 
travagance !  There  be  those,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
who  exploit  their  emotionalism  for  personal  ad- 
vantage. Consciously  hypocritical  Chadbands 
are  few  ;  but  the  Chadband  traits  are  too  com- 
mon, together  with  the  silly  women  who  admire 
them.  Greatly  to  be  pitied  are  those  sincere 
people  who  try  to  lift  themselves  in  a  basket  to 
the  higher  levels  of  spiritual  life.  Far  more  to 
be  pitied  is  the  world  in  its  need,  waiting  for  a 
self-indulgent,  thoughtless  church  to  get  itself 
into  such  a  state  as  to  be  moved  to  begin,  in 
earnest,  that  work  of  service  which  has  been  its 
plain  duty  all  the  while.  It  is  not  here  claimed 
that  prayer,  aspiration,  spiritual  wrestling  should 
be  neglected  or  spiritual  consciousness  avoided 
— God  forbid  !  It  is  claimed  that  the  Christian 
law  of  beneficence  should  be  obeyed,  and  that  in 
this  obedience,  and  no  otherwise,  are  the  con- 
ditions of  spiritual  health  supplied.  It  is  not 
claimed  that  the  church  is  too  spiritual,  but  that 
it  has  too  much  to  say  about  religion,  as  com- 


36  XLbc  %ti\v  ot  Service 

pared  with  what  it  has  to  say  and  chooses  to  do 
about  work.  The  man  who  fell  among  thieves 
cared  little  for  the  religion  of  the  priest  and  the 
Levite  when  they  passed  by  on  the  other  side  ; 
and  the  common  sense  of  mankind — a  precious 
gift  of  Heaven,  be  it  remembered — affirms  that 
the  religious  experience  of  such  priests  and 
Levites  is  little  worth  caring  about. 

Out  and  out  obedience  to  the  Law  of  Service 
would  bring  in  an  experience  which,  though  not 
new  to  some  individuals,  would  be  new  to  the 
church  at  large.  This  experience  deserves,  and 
will  have,  the  honest  respect  of  the  world,  which 
despises  the  Chadbands,  but  does  not  despise 
the  Brookses,  or  the  Moodys,  or  the  Booths. 

It  may  be  said  here  that  one  aspect  of  Chris- 
tianity which  is  made  prominent  at  the  North- 
field  conferences  should  neither  be  ignored  nor 
be  dealt  with  in  a  half-hearted,  indefinite,  unin- 
telligible way.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  great 
majority  of  those  who  profess  Trinitarian  belief 
have  any  clear  and  positive  views  about  the 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  related  to  per- 
sonal experience  and  conduct ;  and  it  would 
seem  as  if  its  exposition  were  avoided  by  many 
of  our  more  intelligent  public  teachers  of  reli- 
gion. It  is  with  something  else  that  this  book 
has  to  do  ;  but  due  emphasis  on  one  truth  does 
not  imply  neglect  of  any  other. 

All  true  disciples  will  not  have  the  same  de- 
gree of  spiritual  consciousness,  any  more  than  all 


will  have  equal  development  of  musical  taste  or 
poetic  imagination  ;  neither  will  individual  ex- 
periences be  like  Quaker  garments,  all  of  the 
same  style  ;  but  such  spirituality  as  there  is  will 
be  genuine,  not  factitious,  wholesome,  not  mor- 
bid, where  the  Law  of  Service  is  obeyed.  It 
will  not  tend  to  express  itself  in  fantastic  for- 
malities, nor  in  any  manner  of  unloveliness. 
The  beauty  of  the  Lord  will  be  upon  those  who 
do  his  will. 


IX. 

THEOLOGY. 

'T'HE  claims  of  theology  are  not  to  be  dis- 
*  regarded.  Science  and  religion  unite  in 
testifying  to  its  fundamental  importance,  and 
thinkers  are  seeing  more  clearly  than  ever  that 
all  knowledge  is  somehow  knowledge  of  God. 
To  the  rule  that  the  best  things  are  liable  to  the 
worst  abuses,  theology  is  no  exception.  A  saying 
of  Christ  which  we  have  used  before  reveals  the 
check  and  remedy  for  the  notorious  abuses  of 
dogma  :  "  If  any  man  willeth  to  do  his  will,  he 
shall  know  of  the  teaching,  whether  it  is  of 
God." 

Logic,  which  has  counted  for  much  in  the  de- 
velopment of  theological  beliefs,  is  a  good  ser- 
vant, but  a  bad  master.  Given  right  premises, 
logical  processes  bring  us  surely  to  the  truth.  If 
the  premises  are  wrong,  the  better  our  logic,  the 
worse  may  be  its  conclusions.  A  logical  system 
of  dogma  may  give  us  a  cult  which  at  the  heart 
of  it  is  no  better  than  devil-worship.  As  a  cor- 
rective   for  the   vagaries  of  scholastic    theolo- 

38 


gians,  the  Law  of  Service  will  serve  well. 
Obedience  to  it  calls  for  the  exercise  of  robust 
common  sense.  To  serve  efficiently,  one  must 
perforce  be  practical.  The  problems  of  service 
demand  cool  reason,  and  its  practice  forms  the 
habit  of  plain  reasonableness.  A  man  permeated 
with  the  spirit  and  acquainted  with  the  work 
of  active  beneficence  is  not  therefore  completely- 
equipped  for  the  investigations  of  the  divinity 
school  ;  but  a  religious  public  made  up  of  such 
individuals  will  furnish  an  atmosphere  of  right 
thinking,  and  will  demand  in  its  teachers  no 
mere  worship  of  the  syllogism,  but  a  style  of 
reasoning  whose  conclusions  will  tally  with  self- 
evident  truth,  and  will  stand  the  test  of  use. 

Again,  the  doctrines  of  a  church  which  obeys 
the  Law  of  Service  will  be  humane.  The 
atrocities  of  religious  persecution  went  naturally 
with  the  theology  of  the  cloister  ;  and  the  cruel- 
ties which  still  disgrace  our  civilization  are  a 
significant  commentary  on  the  thinking  behind 
the  conduct  of  the  Christian  world — thinking 
much  of  which  has  been  both  cause  and  effect  of 
indifference  to  the  appeal  of  helpless  pain.  It 
may  be  that  "  an  undevout  astronomer  is  mad  "  ; 
yet  truth  can  be  discovered  in  astronomy  with- 
out devoutness.  The  development  of  the  bi- 
nomial formula  does  not  depend  on  a  right  state 
of  the  affections.  In  the  science  of  theology, 
however,  it  is  otherwise.  Its  subject-matter  is  so 
related  to  character  that  the  moral  bias  and  ani- 


40  ^be  Xaw  of  Service 

mus  of  the  student  will  powerfully  affect  his 
conclusions.  It  will  not  do  to  construct  a  deity 
by  a  priori  reasoning  and  deduce  a  system  of 
doctrine  concerning  him  from  the  mere  assump- 
tions of  that  reasoning  ;  and  accordingly  we 
find  theologians  appealing  to  the  law  and  the 
testimony.  The  sum  and  substance  of  revela- 
tion is  in  Christ,  the  Word,  who  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister  ;  not  to  break 
the  bruised  reed,  but  to  heal  the  broken-hearted, 
to  preach  deliverance.  The  Law  of  Service  is 
an  interpretation  of  Christ.  The  theology  of 
those  who  fully  accept  this  interpretation  may 
be  faulty  in  other  respects,  but  it  will  at  least  be 
kind,  not  cruel.  It  need  not  forget  that  love  is 
a  consuming  fire,  but  it  must  needs  remember 
that  the  consuming  fire  is  Love. 

Again,  as  we  maintain  that  our  Law  gives  the 
divine  idea  of  man,  since  the  sum  of  manhood 
is  in  its  activities,  so  we  insist  that  it  points 
out  the  true  way  to  man's  idea  of  God.  Our 
conception  of  God  is  anthropomorphic.  We  can- 
not escape  this  ;  if  Christ  be  the  true  word  and 
revelation  of  God,  we  need  not  regret  it.  The 
nearer  we  approximate  to  a  right  view  and  reali- 
zation of  manhood,  the  better  able  we  shall  be 
to  approximate  to  the  truth  concerning  God. 

If  it  be  feared  that  interest  in  theology  will 
languish  in  the  presence  of  an  absorbing  inter- 
est in  applied  Christianity,  the  answer  is  that,  if 
so,  so  it  is  best.     If  the  captain  of  a  Cunarder 


is  too  much  occupied  with  the  cares  and  calcula- 
tions of  the  voyage  to  employ  himself  in  mathe- 
matical research,  the  passengers  will  judge  him 
right  in  preferring  seamanship  to  scholarship. 
Neither,  however,  will  they  fear  that  abstract 
investigation  will  be  neglected,  so  long  as  the 
problems  of  actual  life  continually  lead  up  to 
it,  and  the  human  mind  is  by  its  very  nature 
subject  to  the  fascinating  allurements  of  science. 
The  theology  that  efficiently  navigates  the  ship 
cannot  be  altogether  wrong  ;  that  which  drives 
it  on  the  rocks  or  leaves  it  to  rot  at  its  moorings 
is  ipso  facto  a.  failure.  The  knowledge  of  God 
has  nothing  to  lose  and  much  to  gain  from  the 
doing  of  his  will, 


X. 

THE   CHURCH:  INSTRUCTION. 

INCIDENTS  to  the  work  of  the  church  must 
*  be  subordinated  to  essentials.  Social  enjoy- 
ment is  incidental,  yet  important.  When  the 
social  life  of  the  church  resembles  the  society- 
or  club-life  of  the  unchristian  world,  whether  in 
exclusiveness,  in  frivolity,  or  in  wastefulness,  it 
is  time  to  call  a  halt.  Music  is  an  incident  of 
religious  work,  often  unwisely  neglected.  Other 
things  equal,  the  better  music  the  better  wor- 
ship and  work.  When  it  becomes  a  perform- 
ance rather  than  an  act  of  worship,  a  costly 
importation  rather  than  a  spontaneous  utter- 
ance, it  is  no  longer  a  means  of  grace  but  a 
hinderance  to  grace.  While  good  works  out- 
side lack  support,  so  long  operatic  display  is 
out  of  place  in  church.  Religious  enjoyment, 
even,  is  also  incidental.  A  church  is  no  mere 
club  to  promote  enjoyment  of  any  kind.  Nor, 
as  we  understand  it,  is  it  essential,  though  it 
be  natural  and  useful,  that  the  church  work 
directly  to  promote  the  private  exercises  of  de- 

42 


tTbc  Cburcb:  flnstruction  43 

votion  among  its  members.     The  church   is   to 
disciple  all  nations,  to  reform  all   societies,  to       i 
enlighten  all  moral  darkness,  to  alleviate  all  dis-       \ 
tress.     Let  it  do  that  work,  and  there  will  be  no 
escape  froni  a  deepening  personal  communion        \ 
with  God.     To  try  to  be  religious  while  neglect- 
ing urgent  duty  is  to  begin  at  the  wrong  end. 

Instruction  in  righteousness,  we  shall  agree, 
is  an  essential.  The  Bible  is  the  great  text- 
book, not  merely  a  book  in  which  to  find  texts. 
Preaching,  then,  should  be  largely  expository, 
not  dealing  merely  with  detached  passages.  It 
must  view  that  remarkable  library  of  history 
and  literature  as  such,  and  its  parts  as  related  to 
each  other,  and  to  the  scope  and  purpose  of  the 
whole  ;  each  of  the  parts,  in  turn,  calling  for 
like  comprehensive  treatment  and  analysis.  Not 
every  minister  can  be  a  critical  scholar,  but 
most  ministers  should  be  able  to  keep  in  touch 
with  current  scholarship,  as  well  as  command 
the  sifted  product  of  older  studies.  The  Bible 
instruction  of  the  Christian  year,  and  from  year  to 
year,  should  be  planned  for  completeness  of  out- 
line, and  for  judicious  guidance  of  private  study. 
While  reverent  and  careful,  it  should  be  broad, 
honest,  and  fearless.  But  this  is  not  all.  As 
related  to  service,  all  knowledge  and  all  truth 
are  the  preacher's  province.  He  not  only  may 
but  must  claim  the  widest  liberty  in  respect  to 
matter  and  treatment.  The  old  jest,  that  the 
preacher  must  not  meddle  with  politics  or  reli- 


44  ^be  Xavv  of  Service 

gion,  must  lose  its  point.  Prudence  and  good 
sense  are  never  out  of  date  ;  but  to  shrink  from 
discussing  practical  questions,  exactly  because 
they  are  practical  and  are  provocative  of 
thought  and  partisanship,  belongs  to  that  feeble, 
unmanly  type  of  Christianity  which  has  too 
often  and  too  justly  brought  religion  into  con- 
tempt. The  minister  should  be  as  true  a  man 
as  the  old  Roman,  and  "  meddle  "  with  whatever 
is  vital  to  human  welfare,  whether  in  the  narrower 
community  or  in  the  broader.  A  thousand 
times  better  to  make  mistakes  sometimes  than 
slothfully  to  shirk  the  duty  of  thought,  or  cow- 
ardly to  shirk  the  duty  of  speech.  He  who 
would  instruct  and  reform  men  must  expect 
them  to  be  more  than  intolerant  partisans  or 
jealous  self-seekers  ;  if  he  would  save  their  souls, 
he  must  reckon  them  worth  saving.  We  need 
more  self-respect  and  respect  for  men  ;  more 
sturdy  self-forgetfulness  and  generous  impulse 
to  fight  against  wrong.  "  Be  Kent  unmannerly, 
when  Lear  is  mad  !  "  Be  every  true  man  bold, 
like  honest  Kent,  when  old  King  Demos  has  lost 
his  wits,  and  would  be  flattered  with  lies  or 
obeyed  in  craven  silence. 

An  acute  critic  has  lately  pointed  out  that 
Macbeth  can  go  on  adding  crime  to  crime,  be- 
cause he  turns  the  truth  he  so  vividly  perceives 
into  material  for  poetry  rather  than  motive  for 
righteousness.  With  a  powerful  imagination 
and  a  poet's  temperament,  he  relieves  the  ten- 


^be  Cburcb :  irnstruction  45 

sion  of  his  feelings  in  noble  strains  of  eloquence, 
and  so  is  calmed  and  fitted  for  his  horrid  work  ; 
while  his  wife,  to  whom  "  words  are  things," 
fears  madness  from  his  meditation,  and  breaks 
into  his  rhythmic  monologue  with  "  What  do 
you  mean  !  "  The  same  writer  reminds  us  of 
the  dread  that  haunted  the  preacher  Robertson 
lest  himself  should  not  go  with  his  words  ;  and 
every  man  with  the  speaker's  temperament  may 
understand  what  Lady  Macbeth  could  not. 
Nothing  is  easier,  oftentimes,  to  the  speaker, 
nothing  more  agreeable  to  the  well-fed  hearer, 
than  to  embody  some  truth  of  Christianity  in 
sonorous  words,  just  and  beautiful  enough,  but 
deadening  to  the  conscience  because  unrelated 
to  conduct.  Some  quickening  of  the  imagina- 
tion and  glow  of  feeling,  as  moral  as  the  purr  of 
a  kitten,  may  pass  for  devotional  fervor.  Sooth- 
ing as  sleep,  it  even  "  knits  up  the  ravelled  sleave 
of  care,"  and  serves  well  for  *'  balm  of  hurt 
minds  "  ;  but  my  lady  goes  back  to  her  unfeel- 
ing and  wasteful  "  society,"  and  her  lord  returns 
to  wallow  in  the  mire  of  the  exchanges.  Better 
poetry  can  be  bought  at  the  bookseller's — far 
better,  in  that  it  professes  to  be  no  more  and  no 
other  than  it  is.  Figuratively,  if  not  literally, 
our  congregations  have  been  preached  to  sleep 
by  thrifty  sermonizers,  who  would  have  all  men 
speak  well  of  them.  Let  fearless,  hard-headed 
men  awaken  them  with  doctrine,  reproof,  in- 
struction in  righteousness. 


46  Cbe  Xaw  of  Service 

Witli  the  prayer-meeting  as  such,  or  as  a  love- 
feast,  we  have  nothing  to  do  here.  In  practice 
it  is  largely  devoted  to  informal  preaching,  cleri- 
cal or  lay.  This  should  be  instructive,  if  not 
didactic.  Imagine  an  organization  of  intelligent 
people,  united  for  the  noblest  purposes  and 
under  the  strongest  conceivable  motives,  whose 
weekly  conference  should  be  neglected  by  many 
of  the  ablest  members  and  largely  given  to  the 
repetition  of  certain  feeble  platitudes  or  good 
old  formulas  minus  their  life  and  efficacy  !  Yet 
this  description  does  small  injustice  to  the  aver- 
age prayer-meeting.  The  best  talent  should 
give  its  best,  for  instruction  in  the  truth,  which 
no  minister  can  monopolize,  and  for  counsel  in 
the  work,  which  belongs  to  all.  The  church  in 
conference  should  forget  itself  and  warm  to  its 
work,  as  every  assembly  with  an  absorbing  pur- 
pose does. 

The  Sunday-school,  if  not  a  model  of  what  a 
school  for  instruction  should  not  be,  comes  al- 
together too  near  it.  Its  proper  text-book  is 
left  at  home — possibly  a  good  arrangement,  if 
teacher  or  pupil  knew  the  lesson.  A  feeble  sub- 
stitute for  it  is  wide  open  in  all  hands.  Happy 
if  the  teacher  does  not  read  ready-made  ques- 
tions to  the  class,  and  the  class  read  ready-made 
answers  to  the  teacher.  With  such  a  mockery 
of  instruction,  it  matters  the  less  that  con- 
ventional "exercises"  reduce  to  a  minimum 
the  face-to-face  encounter  of  teacher  and  class. 


Cbe  Cburcb :  Unstruction  47 

Without  considering  here  the  merit  of  the  work 
done  by  those  excellent  doctors  of  divinity  who 
deal  out  the  Scripture  piecemeal  with  fragments 
of  commentary,  we  remark  that  local  initiative 
is  not  encouraged,  but  anticipated  and  in  effect 
superseded.  The  churches  whose  theory  is  the 
extreme  of  local  independence,  are  governed  in 
this  so  vital  matter  by  distant  committees  having 
the  substance  of  authority  without  its  official 
dignity  and  responsibility. 

It  may  be  profitable  to  say  that  a  church  in- 
telligently devoted  to  service  will  of  course  insist 
on  efficient  teaching  in  its  school.  Paid  super- 
intendency,  and  even  paid  instruction,  where 
practicable,  is  worth  considering.  He  who  sells 
his  services  is  not  therefore  more  bound  to  do 
his  duty,  but  his  duty  is  then  specific  and  deter- 
minate ;  he  feels  bound  to  render  a  quid  pro  quo. 
It  goes  without  saying  that  piety  is  no  sufficient 
evidence  of  fitness  to  teach,  and  it  ought  to  go 
without  saying  that  the  more  closely  any  work 
of  instruction  is  related  to  what  is  most  vital 
and  most  sacred,  the  more  disastrous  is  ineffi- 
ciency in  that  work.  In  more  than  one  depart- 
ment of  church  activity  we  should  do  well  to 
lay  to  heart  what  Mr.  Brownell  says  of  the  French- 
man :  "  He  feels  .  .  .  that  emotional  seri- 
ousness will  not  transform  intellectual  levity." 


XI. 


THE   CHURCH  :    INSPIRATION   AND    AGGRES- 
SION. 


A  S  instruction  belongs  to  the  essential  work 
'**'  of  the  church,  so  does  inspiration.  It  is 
essential  that  men  be  stirred,  quickened,  in- 
vigorated. It  belongs  to  our  view  of  the  whole 
matter  to  say  that  they  are  to  be  inspired  not 
merely  to  activity,  but  in  and  through  it ;  and 
that  we  mean  activity  not  merely  of  the  emo- 
tions, but  of  the  whole  man.  The  church  must 
shake  off  its  paralysis  of  intellectual  indolence, 
and  let  its  torpor  of  mind  be  dispelled  by  a  tonic 
breeze  of  thought  and  discussion.  There  is 
active  thinking  in  these  days  among  some 
few  scholars  and  live  men  in  the  evangelical 
churches.  The  controversy  to  which  this  leads 
is  deeply  interesting  to  some  of  the  rank  and 
file  ;  others,  here  and  there,  are  attracted  by  its 
speculative  or  sentimental  aspects  ;  the  great 
mass  give  it  as  much  thought,  perhaps,  as  the 
average  woman  gives  to  politics.  Again,  to  the 
honor  of  the   age  be  it  said,  the  problems  of 

48 


^be  Cburcb :  irnspiratlon  anD  Bg^ression    49 

social  justice  and  effective  charity  are  getting 
the  attention  of  thinkers.  Professors,  novelists, 
editors,  clergymen,  doubtless  even  statesmen, 
are  actively  interested,  and  in  some  ways  the 
people  at  large  show  that  they  are  not  unmoved. 
In  every  age  some  helpful  sympathy  has  favored 
the  unfortunate,  and  in  this,  we  may  believe, 
there  is  more  than  ever  ;  but  if  any  man  would 
learn  how  little  thought  is  given  these  problems 
by  average  church-goers,  let  him  present  to  a 
company  of  them  some  broader  aspect  of  social 
duty,  some  larger  application  of  Christ's  teach- 
ing to  facts  too  sad,  almost,  for  humanity  to 
bear.  The  blank  indifference  of  these  good 
people  will  open  his  eyes — let  us  hope  it  will 
not  embitter  him.  Eloquence  might  move  them, 
but  that  will  always  move  assemblies — while  it 
lasts.  If  the  question  be  of  local  and  present 
activities,  of  definite  doing  and  giving,  every- 
body's business  is  nobody's  ;  apathy  is  the  rule, 
active  sympathy  the  exception.  About  such 
matters  people  are  willing  to  be  preached  to,  in 
a  mild  and  general  way.  If  the  preaching  be 
elegant  and  finished,  tickling  their  self-com- 
placency, or  eloquent,  stirring  them  to  a  short- 
lived luxury  of  feeling,  so  much  the  better  ;  but 
lacking  these  qualities,  so  it  be  respectably 
verbose,  uttered  in  a  "  holy  tone,"  safely  conserv- 
ative, and  not  too  much  concerned  with  imme- 
diate personal  applications,  the  philistinism  of 
the  people  will  rally  round  the  philistinism  of 


50  Zbc  Xaw  of  Service 

the  preacher,  while  the  cruel  old  injustice  goes 
on.  Many  a  good  man  preaches  on,  blind  to 
the  larger  views,  too  much  absorbed  in  routine 
to  think  with  the  thinking  of  the  age.  Many 
another,  probably,  yields  intellectual  assent  to 
far  more  radical  views  than  he  plainly  teaches, 
wishing,  as  a  friendly  critic  said,  "  to  take  the 
people  all  along  with  him,"  and  thinking  of  the 
more  generous  truths,  perhaps,  that  they  "  can- 
not bear  them  now."  Timidity  is  folly,  and  is 
the  mother  of  follies  and  disloyalties.  If  Chris- 
tianity will  not  bear  investigation,  whether  of 
its  credentials  or  of  its  logical  implications,  it  is 
out  of  date  and  should  be  obsolete.  If  it  is  too 
good  for  frank  discussion,  it  is  too  bad  for  the 
uses  of  men  ;  if  it  loves  not  the  light,  it  belongs 
to  the  kingdom  of  darkness.  Let  no  man  to 
whom  truth  is  revealed  deem  himself  its  cus- 
todian with  discretion.  Whatever  may  be  the 
counsels  of  the  Almighty  in  the  evolution  of 
revelation,  he  has  made  no  country  parson  or 
divinity  professor,  no  priest  or  pope  his  plenipo- 
tentiary, authorized  to  give  or  to  withhold  the 
truth.  Courage,  man  !  If  you  have  received 
the  light,  be  assured  the  time  has  come  to 
have  it  shine.  Away  with  your  bushel — your 
neighbor  can  bear  the  full  blaze  if  you  can. 
Polish  up  your  mirror,  and  send  the  radiance  on. 
Yet  you  may  be  mistaken  ?  Certainly  you  may  ; 
but  the  makers  of  creeds  and  manipulators  of 
assemblies   have    been    mistaken,    and    will    be 


tTbe  Cburcb :  Ifnsp.iration  anD  Bgcjression    51 

again.  The  narrow-minded  self-indulgent,  the 
Dedlocks,  the  Chadbands  have  been  mistaken, 
and  will  be  evermore.  Your  neighbor  will  be 
fearless  in  advocacy  of  his  mediaevalism  ;  if 
honest  and  thorough,  be  you  bold  in  sounding 
the  note  of  progress.  The  air  will  best  be 
cleared,  not  by  blanketing  stagnation,  but  by 
stirring  all  up,  and  letting  in  the  sun. 

What  has  been  said  of  apathy  and  intellectual 
torpor  in  the  church  need  not  discourage  en- 
deavor to  work  a  change.  It  is  suicide  to  argue 
that  because  things  are  wrong  therefore  they 
cannot  be  righted.  Christ's  remedy  for  the  dis- 
ease of  sin  with  its  symptoms  of  misery  is  radical 
and  constitutional.  It  is  to  be  administered 
by  fearless  practitioners  and  in  heroic  doses. 
Imitations  and  adulterations  may  be  perilous  ; 
quackery  or  superstition  may  hinder  its  normal 
working  ;  but  the  genuine  remedy  may  be  used 
undiluted,  without  stint  and  without  misgiving. 
The  church  is  apathetic^ecause  so  long  accus- 
tomed to  apathy.  Occasional  fervor  and  ha- 
bitual coldness  have  been  its  climate.  Not 
incapacity  but  inertia  has  kept  it  where  it  is. 
Lacking  initiative  and  direction,  it  has  obeyed 
the  laws  of  social  statics.  Under  certain  condi- 
tions, nothing  more  inert  than  gunpowder  ;  but 
the  little  finger  of  a  child  can  awaken  it  to  resist- 
less energy.  Superficially,  mankind  are  sluggish 
and  conservative  ;  at  heart,  they  crave  expres- 
sion  in    vigorous   life.     All   the  world  loves  a 


52  XLbc  Xaw  of  Service 

lover  and  a  hero.  Restless  material  activities 
and  the  war  of  competition  are  but  so  many  out- 
lets for  the  pent-up  force  that  finds  no  better. 
Concentrating  on  emotion,  condoning  or  en- 
couraging selfish  greed,  too  often  actually  frown- 
ing upon  inquiry,  if  the  church  has  failed  to  get 
the  best  out  of  its  members,  exactly  this  was 
to  be  expected.  If  sporadic  and  unsupported 
efforts  to  interest  people  in  the  better  way  show 
small  results,  yet  the  leaven  is  working.  They 
are  accustomed  to  be  led  ;  when  the  broader 
gospel  so  reaches  the  leaders  as  to  break  their 
unmanly  silence  there  will  be  no  dearth  of 
followers. 

"  While  I  was  musing,  the  fire  burned." 
Spiritual  activity  comes  by  applying  the  mind 
to  the  things  of  the  spirit.  Whatever  affects 
the  welfare  of  men  and  the  glory  of  God  the 
pulpit  should  deal  with,  applying  to  all  prob- 
lems the  central  truth,  testing  all  theories  by 
the  same.  Fearlessly  the  people  should  be 
brought  to  face  what  must  force  them  to  think — 
the  facts  of  life  in  the  light  of  Christ's  teaching. 
Criticism  and  inquiry  are  to  be  encouraged,  not 
frowned  upon.  Thought  and  discussion,  which 
have  been  feared  as  hostile  to  the  truth,  must 
be  welcomed  as  necessary  to  its  thorough 
acceptance.  The  inspiration  that  comes  of 
right  intellectual  activity  is  to  the  business  of 
service  ;  and  through  exercise  of  the  powers  in 
service  comes  a  quickening  of  the  whole  man. 


Zbc  Cburcb :  flnspiration  an5  Basression    53 

Get  men  intelligently  in  love  with  a  good  cause 
and  at  work  for  it,  and  they  have  "  hitched  their 
wagon  to  a  star."     Move  on  they  must. 

Implied  in  all  that  has  been  said,  and  imply- 
ing it  all,  is  the  conquest  of  the  world.  The 
disciples  are  to  go  into  all  the  world,  and  win  it 
all.  We  have  related  instruction  and  inspira- 
tion to  aggressive  service,  and  in  it  we  find  the 
unity  of  all  church  activity.  Under  a  less  in- 
sistent view  of  the  Law  of  Service,  as  the  world 
justifies  an  extravagant  devotion  to  self-culture, 
so  we  might  argue  plausibly  for  making  evan- 
gelism, reform,  relief,  all  outgoing  beneficence 
more  or  less  incidental  to  the  self-centred 
work  of  the  church.  We  might  make  some 
excuse  for  brief  times  of  ingathering  followed 
by  long  seasons  of  tranquil  instruction,  exhorta- 
tion, and  devotion.  But  if  the  effort  to  show 
the  authority  and  scope  of  this  law  has  not 
failed,  and  our  view  of  spiritual  culture  has 
justified  itself,  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  no 
warrant  for  assuming  that  we  may  choose  be- 
tween the  cool  shade  of  contemplation  and  the 
blazing  sunshine  of  that  field  which  is  always 
white  for  the  harvest.  "  All  quiet  along  the 
Potomac"  ;  a  splendid  army  wasted  in  routine. 
Well  drilled,  no  doubt,  and  enthusiastic  ;  yet 
ineffective  against  the  industrious  soldiership 
of  an  adversary  weaker  but  more  energetic. 
Satan  is  always  marching  on,  while  the  "  sacra- 
mental hosts "    are    drilling    in    camp.     "  C'est 


54  trbe  Uaw  of  Service 

magnifiqiie,"  possibly  ;  "  mais  ce   n'est    pas    la 
guerre." 

If  ours  is  not  "  the  people's  church,"  it  is  not 
Christ's  church.  If  with  its  costly  plant,  its 
trained  servants,  its  social  prestige,  its  hold  on 
the  imagination  of  mankind,  its  claim  of  a 
divine  commission — if  with  all  these  it  is 
merely  a  religious  club,  for  the  luxury  of  certain 
personal  enlargements,  it  is  masquerading  in 
the  livery  of  heaven,  and  the  reckoning  will 
come. 

"  Tliough  the  mills  of  God  grind  slowly,  yet  they  grind 
exceeding  small." 

The  ideal  church,  under  modern  conditions, 
is  a  seminary  of  liberal  thought  and  spiritual 
culture,  a  training  school  for  service,  a  work- 
shop of  beneficent  activities,  a  bureau  of 
supplies  for  human  need,  a  headquarters  of 
far-reaching  enterprise,  a  rallying  point  for 
1  reform,  a  refuge  from  injustice. 


XII. 
CLERGY  AND  LAITY. 

'T'HE  greatest  efficiency  cannot  be  attained 
*  without  right  relations  between  minister 
and  people.  We  choose  advisedly  the  good 
old  word  minister  rather  \)i\2.xv  pastor.  To  call  a 
man  a  shepherd  tempts  him  to  self-conceit  ;  and 
the  people  are  too  prone,  at  the  best,  to  act  like 
irresponsible  sheep.  The  exaltation  of  one 
functionary,  as  hedged  with  special  sanctity, 
favors  the  bad  distinction  between  sacred  and 
secular — a  distinction  fraught  with  evil  conse- 
quences in  practice  as  it  is  false  in  theory. 
The  dignity  of  the  ministry  is  of  no  more  con- 
sequence than  that  of  the  laity.  Any  work 
that  does  not  invest  the  doer  of  it  with  a 
heavenly  dignity  is  a  vicious  work.  The 
church  is  to  foster  in  all  its  members  that  which 
is  above  all  earthly  distinctions.  In  the  wide- 
spread movement  towards  democracy  we  see 
the  groping  of  the  nations  towards  the  Common- 
wealth of  God. 

55 


56  Zbc  Xaw  ot  Service 

"  The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new, 
And  God  fulfils  himself  in  many  ways." 

Not  much  longer,  whatever  its  administrative 
systems,  ought  the  church  to  stand  against  the 
new  order  by  clinging  to  a  social  hierarchy 
within  itself  which  is  unjust  and  injurious  to  all 
concerned,  and  inconsistent  with  the  greatest 
usefulness. 

The  old  and  vicious  way  fosters  vanity  in 
small  minds — and  none  of  our  minds  are  too 
large.  It  fosters  ministerial  clannishness  and  a 
dictatorial  habit,  while  at  the  same  time  it 
tempts  ministers  to  a  subservient  lowering  of 
standards  and  humoring  of  prejudices,  by  which 
to  maintain  an  ascendancy  insecure  because 
unnatural.  It  tends  to  the  evolution  of  an 
unmanly  functionary,  posing  as  the  monstrosity 
the  weaker  brethren  take  him  for — something 
more  and  less  than  a  man.  On  the  other  hand 
it  makes  it  easy  for  the  laity  to  leave  religion, 
and  with  it  Christianity,  to  the  clergy.  It  con- 
fuses and  debases  their  thinking  on  the  most 
vital  of  all  matters. 

The  minister,  as  a  man,  belongs  absolutely  on 
a  level  with  the  people.  Like  the  obscurest  of 
them,  he  is  entitled  to  precisely  so  much  wor- 
ship as  is  due  to  our  common  manhood  and  his 
personal  qualities.  Like  every  other  man,  he 
is  entitled  to  courtesy,  to  justice,  to  brotherly 
love  and  help.  Just  as  much  personal  ambition 
as  any  Christian  may  cherish,  he  may  cherish. 


Clerks  anb  Xaitij  57 

Private  ends  he  may  seek  as  legitimately  as  any 
man.    If  the  Christian  man  of  business  demands 
no  more  than  freedom  and  a  fair  field,  neither 
should  the  Christian  minister  expect  more.     As 
it  is  necessary  that  the  productive  labor  of  the 
community  support  an  insurance  agent,  so  should 
it   support  a  minister,  who  in  his   sphere  con- 
tributes like  the  other  to  the  safety  and  welfare 
of  society.     It  would  belittle  the  manhood   of 
the   former  to  be  a  pensioner  and  a  parasite  ; 
so  would  it  belittle  the  manhood  of  the  latter. 
Ability  with  industry  will  earn  a  living  in  any  1 
profession,  the  clerical  included  ;  incompetency  I 
is  out  of  place  in  any  calling,  the  clerical  not 
excepted.     The  minister,  like  the  layman,  is  en- 1 
titled  to  the  benefits  of  self-respect.     This  he  \ 
for  himself  and  every  true  friend  for  him  should 
guard    with   jealous    care  ;     therefore   the   one 
should  scorn  to  receive,  and  the  other  to  give, 
an  unearned,  spurious  homage. 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  such  views,  so  expressed, 
may  fail  to  get  the  attention  they  deserve,  be- 
cause they  seem  rudely  opposed  to  that  good 
spirit  of  reverence  whose  decadence  has  been 
widely  deplored,  as  well  as  to  respect  for  "  the 
cloth  "  in  particular.  As  for  the  general  senti- 
ment and  habit  of  reverence,  we  must  remem- 
ber that  forms  and  observances,  however  good 
in  themselves,  will  not  suffice  to  maintain  it. 
The  unsparing  criticism  of  our  times  rightly 
insists  on  evidence  of  merit  before  it  allows  the 


58  Cbe  Xaw  of  Service 

claim  for  reverence.  It  is  too  serious  to  be  con- 
tent with  polite  or  pious  fictions.  If  it  be  held 
in  particular  that  the  clerical  office  should  com- 
mand the  deference  of  the  laity,  we  only  insist 
that  as  in  the  army  or  navy,  so  in  the  church, 
the  forms  of  rank  be  treated  purely  as  such,  and 
the  man  be  not  confounded  with  the  officer. 
Right  progress  is  away  from  formalities  to  reali- 
ties. Let  us  think  well  of  all  men  if  we  can, 
and  do  them  honor,  not  excepting  the  ministry  ; 
but  let  us  shun  confusion  of  thought,  whose  end 
is  falsehood. 

If  we  have  found  out  what  a  minister  is  by 
calling  to  remembrance  what  a  man  is,  it  will 
not  be  hard  to  get  at  his  right  relations  to  the 
people  in  church  work.  As  prophet,  it  is  his 
duty  to  speak  the  truth  in  love,  but  unflinch- 
ingly. As  evangelist,  he  is  to  win  for  Christ  the 
loyal  devotion  of  men.  As  philanthropist,  deem- 
ing no  human  concern  foreign  to  him,  he  must 
make  himself  felt  at  every  point  for  the  better- 
ment of  human  conditions.  In  all  these  capaci- 
ties he  needs  the  co-operation  of  the  people. 
All  these  functions  imply  frankness  and  helpful- 
ness in  his  relations  to  the  people  ;  then  must 
the  people  be  frank  and  helpful  in  their  dealings 
with  him.  A  conventional  isolation  is  nowhere 
wholesome  ;  and  in  no  sphere  of  life,  perhaps, 
is  it  so  dangerous  as  in  the  ministry.  If  the 
minister  be  a  true  prophet,  he  will  be  all  too 
lonely  from  the  necessity  of  the  case. 


Clergy  ant)  Xait^  59 

It  is  possible  to  be  critical  without  being 
frank,  and  to  be  both  without  being  helpful.  An 
intelligent  laity  must  have  convictions.  Criti- 
cism of  public  speech  and  official  conduct  is 
inevitable  and  not  to  be  deplored.  It  need  not 
always  be  public,  nor  always  addressed  to  the 
person  most  concerned  ;  but  if  just  and  weighty, 
it  should  find  its  way  to  the  place  where  it  will 
do  the  most  good.  To  find  fault  behind  a  man's 
back  because  too  cowardly  or  too  conscienceless 
to  face  him,  is  meanness.  If  the  critic  has  the 
spirit  of  help,  he  will  naturally  be  frank,  and  to 
some  purpose.  A  minister  too  sensitive  or  con- 
ceited to  hear  manly  criticism  like  a  man  is 
too  sensitive  or  conceited  for  his  business  ;  he 
should  reform  or  retire.  Criticism,  moreover, 
is  not  confined  to  fault-finding.  Give  the  work- 
man the  praise,  as  well  as  the  blame,  which  his 
work  deserves. 

Helpfulness  is  constructive  as  well  as  critical  ; 
it  takes  the  initiative,  it  feels  responsibility.  It 
thinks  for  itself  and  for  the  common  good,  not 
only  in  matters  practical  but  in  matters  doc- 
trinal. It  carries  habitually,  not  intermittently, 
the  spiritual  burden  of  the  church.  Its  means, 
be  they  small  or  great,  are  always  seeking  invest- 
ment ;  the  question  being  not  how  little  it  will 
do  to  give,  but  how  little  it  will  do  to  keep — the 
temptation,  to  improvidence,  not  stinginess. 
The  business  of  the  church  is  the  business  of 
every  member,  not  of  one  salaried  servant.    The 


6()  trbc  Xavv  of  Service 

responsibility  is  not  transferable.  In  a  gener- 
ous spirit,  but  with  a  keen  eye  to  results,  the 
church  should  require  of  its  chief  servant  his 
full  measure  of  service  ;  but  with  far  more 
solicitude,  as  the  principal  in  every  trans- 
action, it  should  itself  carry  on  its  own  cor- 
porate work. 


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XIII. 
HOME  TRAINING. 

T^HERE  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  in 
Christian  families  generally  young  people 
grow  up  with  no  clear  and  thorough  understand- 
ing of  what  the  Christian  conduct  of  life  means. 
Supposing  themselves  to  be  enlightened  Chris- 
tians, they  are  often,  as  regards  single-hearted 
service,  in  the  darkness  of  a  baptized  but  un- 
schooled heathenism.  This  is  no  wonder,  when 
amid  the  woe  and  want  of  mankind  there  is  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  church  avowed  belief  in 
luxury,  if  only  it  be  accompanied  by  large  giving  ! 
Verily  the  heathen  will  rage,  and  the  people 
imagine  a  vain  thing,  until  the  elect  have  learned 
and  taught  their  children  to  read  the  very  primer 
of  working  Christianity. 

When  it  was  intimated  in  these  pages  that  in 
spiritual  mechanics  there  is  no  lifting  oneself  by 
one's  bootstraps,  more  was  meant  than  a  whim- 
sical analogy.  A  child  can  get  himself  nearer 
the  stars,  but  it  is  only  by  putting  himself  into 
a  certain  relation  with  what  is  external  to  him. 

6i 


62  ^be  Xavv  of  Service 


■  He  must  climb  by  taking  steps.  If  a  child  is  to 
attain  the  spiritual  levels  of  righteousness,  he 
must  be  set  at  the  works  of  righteousness. 
Knowledge  and  incentive  he  will  need  ;  but  the 
vital  question  will  always  be  not  what  truth  he 
has  learned  or  what  motives  have  been  brought 
to  bear,  but  what  good  actions  he  has  done.  We 
have  tried  too  much,  we  may  be  trying  too  much 
still,  to  coax  or  drive  or  teach  the  young  into 
abstract  goodness  ;  we  must  work  them  into  con- 
crete goodness.  Grant  all  claims  about  the  in- 
stantaneous new  birth  ;  yet  what  has  our  scrutiny 
to  do  with  the  day  and  the  hour  ?  What  have 
we  to  do  with  the  invisible  process,  save  as  it 
registers  itself  in  a  visible  process  ?  Let  us  be- 
w^are  of  promoting  morbid  or  spurious  experi- 
ences, by  expecting  in  the  ordinary  child  what 
belongs  to  riper  experience  and  fuller  conscious- 
ness. As  the  forcing  process  is  contrary  to 
reason,  so  it  is  confusing,  discouraging,  justly 
distasteful  to  the  child,  fruitful  of  reaction  and 
alienation.  To  the  rich  young  man  Christ  ap- 
plied the  decisive  test  of  conduct.  A  modern 
evangelist  would  have  had  him  in  the  church 
and  kept  him  there,  untested.  The  same 
rational  right-doing  which  may  be  made  attrac- 
tive and  formative  to  childhood  is  the  condition 
of  Heaven's  favor  everywhere. 

We  must  not  forget  that  the  young  human 
animal  is  a  being  of  "  large  discourse,  looking 
before  and  after,"  endowed  with  god-like  reason. 


Ibome  draining  63 

If  we  assume  that  he  is  a  "  blind  mouth,"  simply 
craving  the  most  obvious  gratifications,  we  shall 
fail  to  secure  him  the  most  enjoyment,  as  well  as 
the  best  development.  The  pleasures  of  sense  are 
fully  attained  and  retained  only  in  the  self-con- 
trol of  reason,  in  obedience  to  law.  They,  too, 
belong  in  the  category  of  wholesome  activities. 
Give  the  child  in  feeling  and  in  fact  the  largest 
freedom,  which  is  freedom  under  law.  Believe 
that  human  nature  is  constituted  to  find  all  its 
adaptations  in  the  wholesome  order  of  right- 
eousness. See  depravity  as  negative,  abnormal, 
destructive.  Have  faith  in  the  primal  law  of 
righteousness,  and  expect  response  to  its  appeal 
from  an  organism  created  to  obey  it.  The  music 
of  humanity  is  indeed  "  like  sweet  bells  jangled 
out  of  tune  and  harsh";  but  the  profoundest 
law  of  man's  nature  is  that  of  harmony  with 
God.  Herein  is  abundant  encouragement  for 
realizing  that  harmony  in  the  individual  by  his 
willing  co-operation. 

We  have  now  the  key  to  our  position  as  to  the 
moral  nurture  of  childhood  under  the  Law  of 
Service.  It  is  not  by  upholding  an  ideal  short 
of  perfection  that  we  are  to  get  the  inestimable 
advantage  of  this  primal  righteousness  of  con- 
stitution. For  the  clear  note  of  truth  is  reserved 
the  jubilant  response,  the  music  of  humanity. 
The  wicked  falsehood  of  compromise  does  not 
appeal  to  sound  primitive  manhood.  Present  to 
your    child    an    ideal    of    Christian   life   which 


64  ^be  Xavv  of  Service 

makes  provision  for  selfish  philistinism,  and  he 
may  believe  in  it  ;  but  you  can  never  make  him 
love  it  with  his  whole  being.  Away  underneath 
his  thinking  is  his  nature,  which  is  according  to 
the  creative  thought,  and  keyed  to  the  funda- 
mental harmonies. 

It  may  seem  an  abrupt  descent  from  such  con- 
siderations to  speak  of  the  gregarious,  the  imi- 
tative, the  conventional  in  human  nature  ;  but 
we  must  ignore  no  fact  if  we  would  get  at  the 
whole  truth.  Facts  trivial  in  themselves  may  be 
greatly  significant  in  their  relations. 

In  the  words  of  an  unpublished  essay  :  "  If 
it  be  the  fashion,  you  shall  see  fair  women  and 
brave  men  gloat  over  the  torture  of  helpless  inno- 
cence, countenance  any  absurdity  or  injustice, 
great  or  small,  do  it  in  Heaven's  name  or  the  other. 
Make  it  the  fashion,  and  we  sacrifice  ourselves 
for  an  idea  as  cheerfully  as  we  hang  our  neighbor 
for  a  belief  or  an  unbelief.  '  What  fools  these 
mortals  be  ! '  From  the  cut  of  our  clothes  to 
the  salvation  of  our  souls,  we  follow  the  mode." 

The  tendency  thus  satirized  is  to  a  thoughtful 
observer  among  the  most  striking  phenomena 
of  human  life  ;  among  the  saddest,  too,  but  also 
among  the  most  hopeful. 

"  That  monster  custom,  who  all  sense  doth  eat, 
Of  habits  devil,  is  angel  yet  in  this, — 
That  to  the  use  of  actions  fair  and  good 
He  likewise  gives  a  frock  or  livery 
That  aptly  is  put  on." 


1bome  G:ra(nlng  65 


What  is  true  of  good  habit,  the  custom  of  one, 
is  likewise  true  of  good  convention,  the  custom 
of  many.  If  courtesy  be  assumed  as  a  matter  of 
course,  courtesy  will  prevail.  If  courage  be  ex- 
pected of  man  or  child,  courageous  he  will  be. 
If  self-sacrifice  be  the  unwritten  law  of  family 
and  regiment,  the  child  will  give  away  his  cher- 
ished toy,  the  private  will  volunteer  for  the  forlorn 
hope.  The  engineer  who  stands  to  his  post  in 
peril  need  not  be  a  saint,  nor  an  extraordinary 
hero.  His  conscience  is  buttressed  by  a  sense 
of  what  is  expected  of  him.  Fidelity  is  taken 
for  granted.  The  thrill  with  which  we  read  of 
his  splendid  act  is  our  tribute  to  a  divine  gener- 
osity common  in  common  men.  The  criticism 
of  our  time  plays  havoc  with  hero-worship,  as  it 
exposes  the  faults  of  Luther  or  Lincoln  ;  but 
what  we  lose  in  blind  enthusiasm  for  individuals 
we  shall  more  than  gain  in  enthusiasm  for  man- 
kind, if  our  eyes  are  opened  to  see  that  worship 
of  human  virtue  is  worship  of  him  who  is  the 
fountain  of  virtue,  and  who  has  made  in  his 
own  image  every  human  being.  Men's  hearts, 
let  us  believe,  are  better  than  their  heads. 

What  is  thus  true  of  the  race  is  especially  true 
of  docile  and  unspoiled  childhood.  "  Train  up 
a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  ...  he 
will  not  depart  from  it." 

Of  home  training  for  service  we  remark,  then  : 
I.  They  who   assume  the   parental  responsi- 
bility must    accept    the    Law    of    Service,    and 


66  Ebc  Xaw  of  Service 

square  all  their  parental  ambitions  by  it.  They 
must  see  and  acknowledge  that  to  wish  more  or 
less  for  their  children  than  is  consistent  with  it 
is  to  be  false  to  their  trust,  cruel  to  men,  disloyal 
to  Christ. 

2.  The  law  thus  recognized  must  be  taught  in 
the  family  so  early,  constantly,  and  thoroughly, 
that  it  shall  be  accepted  without  question  by  the 
child  like  any  most  fundamental  truth — never 
doubted  nor  explained  away.  There  are  some 
things  that  are  not  to  be  investigated  in  child- 
hood. 

3.  The  young  must  be  trained  to  doctrine,  to 
experience,  to  usefulness,  by  the  discipline  of 
conduct.  To  do  the  generous,  to  abstain  from 
the  selfish  act,  to  shun  falsehood,  vice,  and  ex- 
cess, not  only  as  forbidden,  but  as  unwholesome 
and  mean — this  must  be  rule  and  practice  from 
the  earliest  days.  The  dignity  and  universal 
obligation  of  labor  must  be  taught  not  only,  but 
enforced  by  actual  industry.  The  duty  and 
privilege  of  giving  must  be  exercised.  Prudence 
must  be  taught,  but  as  part  of  the  economy  of 
service — a  far-sighted  self-denial  rather  than  a 
self-insurance. 

4.  The  honorable  necessity  of  plain  living 
must  be  insisted  on,  and  its  practice  enforced. 
The  commonplace  assumption  that  expensive 
living  is  right  because  it  is  the  custom  of  the 
well-to-do,  together  with  the  unchristian  fallacy 
of  supposing   that    any    amount   of  giving  can 


Ibome  ^i-ainin^  67 

justify  or  excuse  needless  luxury,  should  be 
utterly  repudiated,  along  with  the  pernicious 
heresy  that  extravagance  and  dilettanteism  be- 
long to  the  highest  Christian  culture.  The  cry 
of  the  needy  and  the  judgment  words  of  their 
great  champion  should  ring  in  the  ears  of  the 
child  who  is  tempted  to  waste  of  money  and  of 
work, 

5.  It  makes  no  anti-climax  to  say  that  parents 
must  use  common  sense.  To  this  day  the  chil- 
dren of  this  world  are  wiser  in  their  generation 
than  the  children  of  light.  No  spiritual  fervor, 
not  to  speak  of  feeble  sentiment  mistaken  for  it, 
can  take  the  place  of  a  cool  head.  No  natural 
affection,  however  lovely,  can  do  the  best  for  a 
child,  without  insight  and  sagacity.  The  sound- 
est theory  of  life  may  utterly  break  down  in  its 
specific  application  if  applied  by  a  fool.  A  sav- 
ing sense  of  humor  may  do  more  for  a  Christian 
household  than  strong  crying  and  tears. 


XIV. 
SOCIAL    LIFE. 

A  MOST  outstanding  fault  of  our  social  life 
**  is  costliness.  From  the  many-millionaire 
who  squanders  a  fortune  upon  the  festivities  of 
an  evening,  to  the  tradesman's  wife  who  bank- 
rupts her  husband  to  rival  her  neighbors  in  dis- 
play, the  barbarism  of  waste  is  everywhere  a 
violation  not  only  of  good  taste  but  of  good 
morals.  The  waste  of  money  is  not  all.  A  man 
who  moves  in  good  society  must  be  an  expert  in 
the  economy  of  time  or  cheat  his  more  serious 
pursuits  of  their  due.  As  for  society  women, 
with  honorable  exceptions,  they  advertise  the 
worthlessness  of  their  time,  taken  at  their  own  ^ 
estimate.  Health,  too,  is  wasted.  Even  in  its 
mildest  forms,  social  dissipation  constantly 
breaks  in  upon  regular  habits,  tempts  to  excess 
or  imprudence,  and  consumes  the  strength  that 
is  at  the  best  too  little  for  legitimate  work  and 
play.  However  it  may  be  with  seasoned  men 
and  women  of  the  world,  there  is  always  a  con- 
tingent of  busy   people  who  must   be  at   their 

68 


Social  %itc  69 


post,  the  weak,  the  nervous,  and  those  who  lack 
self-command  or  wisdom  to  draw  the  line.  These 
need  the  benefit  of  social  intercourse  ;  but  so- 
ciety is  to  them  a  temptation  and  a  snare.  The 
very  voice  of  refined  and  kindly  hospitality  in- 
vites them  often  to  what  they  know  is  killing 
them  by  inches. 

Society  is  not  only  wasteful  but  frivolous.  It 
makes  amusement  and  display  ends  in  them- 
selves, and  shamelessly  employs  a  host  of  the 
poor  in  dingy  toil  or  unproductive  menial  ser- 
vice that  a  parcel  of  gilded  youth  may  waste 
their  substance  in  riotous  living,  or  eat  the  bread 
of  elaborate  and  vacuous  idleness — the  natural 
prey  of  the  caricaturist.  The  young  woman  of 
the  period  is  probably  more  innocent  than  her 
partner  in  the  ball-room  ;  but  he  is  what  he  is  be- 
cause society,  of  which  she  is  queen,  consents 
to  have  him  so. 

In  the  busy  world  at  large,  mature  men  have 
little  to  do  with  social  intercourse  as  ordered  by 
any  recognized  code.  They  ought  to  be  in  so- 
ciety, but  they  are  not.  Women  more  generally 
keep  up  some  kind  of  social  routine  ;  and  how 
silly  a  great  part  of  it  is,  we  know  too  well.  The 
humorists  and  satirists  cannot  help  seeing  the 
poverty  of  our  social  life  ;  the  mass  take  it  as  it 
comes,  and  hardly  stop  to  think  that  they  know 
better.  The  religious,  by  the  very  conservatism 
of  their  piety,  are  sweetly  acquiescent. 

Our  social  life  is  selfish.     With  a  false  idea  of 


70  Zbc  %n\v  of  Service 

culture,  it  is  naturally  exclusive.  The  exclu- 
sive people,  with  all  their  show  of  refinement, 
are  vulgarized  by  a  theory  which  neglects  what 
is  broadest  and  finest  in  manhood.  Even  sup- 
posing their  culture  to  be  all  it  professes,  it  is 
vitiated  by  denying  its  help  to  those  who  most 
need  it.  That  which  is  ethically  wrong  is  not 
aesthetically  right  ;  for  the  laws  of  taste  are 
God's  laws.  It  were  absurd  to  claim  for  aris- 
tocracy, whether  of  birth  or  of  wealth,  a  moral 
superiority  corresponding  to  its  elegance  and 
aloofness  ;  and  no  aristocracy  is  needed  to  set 
forth  those  excellencies  which  are  non-moral. 
Christ  was  the  finest  of  gentlemen,  because  he 
was  the  best  of  men.  He  solved  the  problem  of 
culture  in  an  environment  of  poverty.  He  gave 
us  the  master  key  to  every  social  problem.  To 
be  unselfish,  social  life  must  somehow  be  inclu- 
sive. There  is  a  natural  stratification  which  is 
right,  but  it  is  not  according  to  bank  accounts 
or  pedigrees  ;  it  does  not  raise  royal  gamblers 
above  honest  gentlemen.  If  it  is  a  part  of  the 
mystery  of  things  that  nature  works  largely  by 
the  rude  law  of  the  strongest,  it  is  a  part  of  the 
blessedness  of  life  that  higher  nature  is  set  to 
right  the  wrongs  of  lower,  not  to  imitate  and 
perpetuate  them. 

If  this  criticism  has  seemed  anywhere  forget- 
ful of  the  many  in  scoring  the  faults  of  a  few,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  society  is  of  all  things 
conventional  and  imitative,  and  the  faults  of  the 


Social  %itc  71 


so-called  higher  classes  are  copied  by  the  rest  of 
mankind.  Rightly  judging  that  in  many  things 
the  exclusive  society  is  admirable,  they  follow 
its  lead  not  wisely  but  too  well.  Of  the  same 
human  nature,  they  are  subject  to  temptations 
essentially  the  same  ;  and  the  monopolists  have 
no  monopoly  of  folly.  That  there  is  neverthe- 
less much  good  in  social  intercourse,  as  we  have 
it,  is  of  course  true.  Also  it  is  true  that  genuine 
good-will  is  inoperative  and  honest  effort  wasted 
through  ignorance  or  want  of  reflection.  Criti- 
cism shows  the  need  of  constructive  work  in 
bettering  what  is  good,  and  utilizing  ineffective 
forces. 

The  Christian  rule  of  life  and  the  Christian 
idea  of  neighborhood  must  govern  all  right  effort 
toward  better  social  usages.  It  is  fundamental 
to  recognize  the  brotherhood  of  all  men,  and 
the  absolute  supremacy  of  duty.  For  a  selfish 
society  we  have  no  counsel  and  no  tolerance. 
In  the  first  place,  then,  wherever  people  are 
brought  together  socially  Christ's  words  about 
the  giving  of  dinners,  as  reported  in  the  four- 
teenth chapter  of  Luke,  must  be  obeyed  accord- 
ing to  their  essential  meaning.  *'  To  him  that 
hath  shall  be  given  " — we  need  not  go  out  of 
our  way  to  prove  that  true.  It  is  for  the  pros- 
perous to  take  thought  of  "  the  poor,  the  maimed, 
the  lame,  the  blind,"  and  from  time  to  time  to 
welcome  at  the  table  or  the  fireside  those  to 
whom  good  dinners  are  the  exception,  and  good 


72  Zbc  Xaw  ot  Service 

society,  under  the  present  frankly  selfish  plan,  is 
beyond  reach  ;  those  who  long  for  home  and 
have  it  not  ;  those  whom  a  little  encouragement 
and  fraternal  kindness  would  save  from  dejec- 
tion and  the  evil  way.  To  the  entertainer  this 
would  doubtless  mean  some  loss.  The  gain 
would  far  outweigh  this  ;  but  we  need  make  no 
nice  estimates  in  such  a  matter. 

It  is  practicable  in  larger  assemblies  to  bring 
the  needy  and  uncheered  into  social  contact 
with  the  happy  well-to-do.  This  will  require 
study  and  effort,  and  some  abstention  from  the 
pleasures  of  fashionable  circles  ;  but  when  the 
favored  classes  really  w^ish  to  meet  the  poor  on 
the  broad  basis  of  fraternity  and  good-will,  they 
will  certainly  find  a  way.  The  church  itself, 
whose  organic  law  unites  all  men  and  all  classes, 
affords  a  local  centre,  a  bond  of  sympathy,  com- 
mon interests  and  enterprises,  various  activities 
which  combine  useful  work  with  social  oppor- 
tunity. That  is  an  exceptionally  favored  soci- 
ety in  which  meetings  for  social  converse  pure 
and  simple  can  be  entirely  successful.  It  were 
reasonable  to  assume,  and  the  assumption  is  not 
unwarranted  by  experience,  that  when  social 
intercourse  is  more  or  less  incidental  to  some 
kind  of  serious  pursuit,  the  ice  will  be  easily 
broken,  the  work  relieved  and  brightened  by 
recreation,  and  the  recreation  dignified  by  the 
work,  A  social  club  as  such  is  apt  to  be  a 
selfish  club  ;  a  club  with  a   literary,   artistic,  or 


Social  Xife  73 


philanthropic  purpose  may  be  socially  a  most 
delightful  success. 

We  must  have  the  courage  of  our  convictions 
about  the  duty  of  frugality.  Good  taste  and 
self-respect  should  be  easily  superior  to  philis- 
tine  extravagance  ;  but  hard  or  easy,  in  fashion 
or  out  of  fashion,  economy  is  a  sacred  duty  if 
Christ  was  right  in  his  teaching.  Late  hours 
and  all  unwholesome  indulgences,  while  in  the 
same  general  category  with  the  squandering  of 
money  and  time,  are  more  immediately  injurious. 
Mere  epicurean  self-interest  should  abolish 
them  ;  the  aesthetic  motive  is  properly  their 
enemy  ;  Christian  morality  repudiates  them. 

From  our  point  of  view,  the  propriety  of 
dancing  all  night,  with  an  open  bar  close  by,  is 
not  to  be  discussed.  This  is  vulgar  and  bad, 
whether  for  "  the  four  hundred,"  or  for  the 
million.  Midnight  Delmonico  dinners  at  five 
dollars  a  plate  are  indefensible  on  Christian 
principles,  even  by  doctors  of  divinity.  There 
are,  however,  open  questions.  Of  dancing,  as 
of  theatre-going,  it  would  be  unreasonable  to 
say  that  it  is  wrong  per  se.  If  the  Law  of  Ser- 
vice were  frankly  accepted,  the  friskiness  of 
youth  would  somehow  express  itself,  as,  doubt- 
less would  the  histrionic  impulse ;  but  there 
would  be  sweeping  reforms,  or  the  professions  of 
dancing-master  and  actor  would  fall  into  merited 
desuetude.  Of  course,  all  amusements  would 
be  put  on  the  defensive  so  far  as  they  are  waste- 


74  ^be  Xaw  ot  Service 

fill  or  issue  in  mental  vacuity.  The  question 
of  allowable  expense  always  gives  a  large  margin 
for  debate  ;  but  the  presumption  is  always  for 
economy.  How  far  society  may  legitimately  be 
exclusive  and  select  is  a  question  whose  answer 
varies  with  circumstances.  Specialists  in  the 
same  field  are  naturally  drawn  together,  and 
with  profit,  provided  the  ever  present  danger  of 
narrowness  and  clannishness  is  guarded  against. 
In  general  society,  a  certain  concentration  of 
wits  and  accomplishments  is  a  condition  of  bril- 
liant and  pithy  talk,  and  a  certain  standard  of 
breeding  is  necessary  to  put  all  at  their  best. 
Nevertheless,  the  leaven  of  fresh  and  vigorous 
thinking  is  precious  for  intellectual  purposes, 
beyond  comparison  with  mere  glitter  and  refine- 
ment ;  and  thinking  of  this  kind  does  not  always 
go  with  repose  of  manner  or  polite  accomplish- 
ments. Here,  again,  the  dangerous  tendency  is 
towards  the  old  selfish  way  ;  the  corrective  is 
the  catholic  spirit  of  Christianity  and  of  the  best 
culture.  For  social  problems,  as  for  all  moral 
problems,  the  central  principle  of  Christ's  teach- 
ing is  the  best  solvent 


XV. 

HUMAN  BROTHERHOOD. 

/"^HRIST  opened  the  way,  not  only  for  Jews 
^■^  but  for  gentiles,  to  a  new  and  needed 
revelation  of  brotherhood.  Peter  the  Jew,  even 
after  all  he  had  known  of  the  life  and  death  of 
his  master,  had  yet  to  learn  that  he  must  not 
"  call  any  man  common  or  unclean,"  and  that 
"  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons."  The  logical 
implications  of  Christianity  were  coming  gradu- 
ally to  be  apprehended  then,  as  they  are  to-day. 
To  the  Greeks  their  neighbors  were  fSap^apoiy 
stammei-ers,  jargoners  j  and  the  Roman  word 
provincia^  though  of  doubtful  origin,  suggests 
that  harsh  career  of  conquest  by  which  Rome 
made  her  vanquished  neighbors  tribute-payers 
and  slaves.  At  the  best,  Caesar's  iron  hand  was 
the  hand  the  imperial  city  stretched  out  across 
her  borders,  and  at  the  worst  such  miscreants  as 
Verres  were  the  missionaries  of  her  civilization. 
If  at  length  the  organizing  genius  of  Rome  could 
not  choose  but  extend  her  franchise,  and  the 
Hebrew  Paul  might  boast  his  citizenship,  it  was 

75 


76  tTbe  Xaw  of  Service 

not  so  much  the  liberality  of  her  spirit  as  the 
logic  of  events.  The  practical  management  of 
things  must  in  the  end  obey  their  inner  law. 
The  policy  of  legislation  must  approximate  the 
sweet  reasonableness  of  philosophy.  Human 
constitutions  must  conform  to  the  divine  con- 
stitution of  man.  The  absurdity  of  Chinese 
walls  between  nations  or  classes  of  men  is  to- 
day so  glaringly  evident  to  any  one  who  intelli- 
gently accepts  the  Christian  ethics  that  we  may 
regard  the  principle  of  brotherhood  as  estab- 
lished and  concern  ourselves  with  its  applica- 
tions. 

By  such  missionary  work  as  is  done,  and  by 
philanthropic  service  like  the  sending  shiploads 
of  flour  to  Russian  sufferers,  the  principle  is 
recognized,  and  the  humane  sentiment  proper 
to  Christianity  somewhat  exemplified.  In  re- 
spect to  public  policy,  however,  and  inter- 
national relations,  there  is  great  need  of  bold 
and  earnest  words.  The  public,  even  the  pro- 
fessedly Christian  press,  take  too  little  account 
of  deliverances  like  this,  not  long  since  widely 
published  :*  '*  So  long  as  there  is  anybody  else 
to  tax,  I  don't  believe  in  taxing  ourselves."  The 
party  leader  who  spoke  these  remarkable  words 
may  possibly  be  a  statesman  in  Washington,  but 
he  proclaimed  himself  a  demagogue  in  Minne- 
apolis— a  demagogue  far  more  dangerous  than 
any  haranguer  of  the  sand  lots  or  spoilsman  of 

'  The  greater  part  of  this  volume  was  written  in  1892. 


Ibuman  J6rotberboo&  77 


Tammany  Hall.     To  "  steal  the  livery  of  Heaven 
to  serve  the   Devil  in  "  is  worse  than   openly  to 
appeal  to   base    passions   or  openly  to  rob  the 
public   crib  ;  to  wear  that  livery  deceiving  and 
self-deceived  by  some  fallacy  of  public  spirit, 
appealing  to  selfishness  personal  and  national  as 
against  fundamental  Christian  morality,  is  most 
effectively  to   debauch    the    public   conscience, 
debase   public    sentiment,    and    undermine    the 
very  foundations  of  patriotism.     There  has  been 
in  recent  years  nothing  more  ominous  in  Ameri- 
can politics  than  the  popularity  of  the  doctrine 
of  protection,  considered  in  relation  to  the  style 
of  reasoning  and  appeal  by  which  it  has  been 
advocated.     This  is  neither  an  essay  on   politi- 
cal economy  nor  a  campaign  document.     The 
author  is  not  hoping,  like  the  good  Doctor  Mul- 
ford,  to  "  influence  the  fall  elections,"  nor  con- 
cerned here  to  argue  the  tariff  question,//-^  or 
con.    The  point  to  be  emphasized  for  the  present 
purpose   is  that  if  a  public  policy,  directly  or 
indirectly,  imposes  burdens   on  any    nation  or 
any  human  being  for  the  sake  of  lightening  our 
burdens    and    increasing    our   prosperity,    it   is 
presumptively  a  wrong  policy,  to  be  rejected  as 
immoral  unless  it  can  be  shown  to  be  necessary, 
adopted   if  it  must  be  with  the  deepest  regret, 
abolished  as  soon  as  it  may  be  with  universal 
applause.     "  America  against  the  world  "  as  a 
party   war    cry    is    worthy    of    Milton's    fallen 
angels,  with  whom  it  was  the  infernal  pit  against 


78  ^be  Xavv  of  Service 

the  universe.  Pure  love  of  country  is  opposed 
to  this  /fseudo-p3itnotism,  as  pure  home  affection 
to  the  clannishness  of  outlaws/ 

In  many  personal  relations,  we  have  more  or 
less  imperfectly  abolished  the  law  of  the  strong- 
est. In  "  business,"  that  law  prevails.  In  the 
relations  of  social  classes  it  largely  prevails  still. 
In  regard  to  international  relations,  whether  of 
trade  or  of  diplomacy,  sordid  motives  and  bar- 
barous passions  are  unblushingly  appealed  to. 
As  corporations  are  said  to  have  no  souls,  so 
nations,  as  such,  with  unity  and  consciousness 
enough  for  selfish  passion,  would  seem  to  claim 
some  immunity  from  the  requirements  of 
conscience,  and  to  view  human  kindness  as  a 
sentiment  rather  than  a  principle.  We  are 
told  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  authori- 
tative international  law  ;  but  we  must  remem- 
ber that  there  is  a  law  of  absolute  authority 
for  all  human  relations,  exactly  as  binding 
for  states  as  for  individuals.  If  a  householder 
ought  to  love  his  next  neighbor,  and  live  in  rela- 
tions of  mutual  good-will  and  helpfulness  with 
him,  France  ought  to  love  Germany,  and  live  in 

'  The  rude  and  shameless  pessimism  that  logically  nar- 
rows national  selfishness  into  sectional  selfishness  is  seen  in 
this  passage  from  a  recent  biography  of  Webster  : 

"  It  is  true  that  his  course  " — about  the  tariff — "  was  a 
sectional  one,  but  everybody's  else  on  this  question  was  the 
same,  and  it  could  not  be,  it  never  has  been,  and  never  will 
be  otherwise." — Lodge's  Webster,  p.  171. 


Ibuman  ;f6rotberboo&  79 

such  relations  with  her.  If  it  is  right  for  our 
churches  to  send  missionaries  to  the  Chinese 
people,  it  is  wrong  for  our  government  to  treat 
the  government  of  China  otherwise  than  with 
perfect  courtesy  and  scrupulous  good  faith.  If 
bullying  is  contemptible  and  wicked  among 
schoolboys,  it  is  wicked  and  contemptible  for  a 
first-class  power  to  bully  a  power  of  the  fourth 
class.  If  it  is  a  shame  to  rejoice  over  a  neigh- 
bor's misfortune,  it  is  a  shame  for  the  partisan 
press  to  gloat  over  industrial  depression  or 
financial  peril  abroad,  as  a  consequence  that 
justifies  our  tariff  legislation  at  home. 

"  The  parliament  of  man,  the  federation  of 
the  world,"  is  no  mere  poet's  dream.  Peaceable 
co-operation  in  justice  and  good-will  is  neces- 
sary to  the  local  beginnings  of  civilization,  and 
the  combination  of  primitive  communities  for 
common  purposes  into  larger  political  units  is  a 
matter  of  like  necessity.  The  American  states 
have  found  peace  and  prosperity  in  a  vast 
union  combining  local  independence  and  flexi- 
bility with  necessary  subordination  for  common 
ends.  This  union,  so  comprehensive  and  com- 
plex, yet  so  simple  in  its  working,  is  a  new  ex- 
periment on  so  great  a  scale  ;  but  it  has  shown 
that  with  virtue  and  intelligence  in  the  people 
it  is  practical  and  workable.  Arbitration  and 
reciprocity  have  begun  to  come  as  necessary 
attendants  of  Christian  civilization.  The  same 
considerations  that  justify  union  on  a  small  scale 


8o  tlbe  Xaw  of  Service 

justify  and  demand  it  on  the  grandest  scale 
conceivable,  and  point  to  it  as  the  ideal  for 
mankind.  The  necessity  for  local  indepen- 
dence may  be  more  imperative  as  the  system  ex- 
pands, and  the  world-wide  unity  of  sovereign 
nations  may  be  in  moral  purpose  and  policy 
rather  than  in  a  political  organism  ;  in  a  league 
rather  than  a  compacted,  centralized  state. 
Again,  as  in  the  working  of  our  great  American 
experiment  the  difficulty  is  seen  to  be  not  admin- 
istrative but  moral,  not  of  methods  but  of  men, 
so  world-wide  peace  and  co-operation  can  be 
maintained  only  by  as  wide  a  recognition  of  the 
Christian  law  for  men  and  nations.  With  the 
acceptance  of  this,  and  approximately  in  propor- 
tion to  it,  peace  and  harmony  must  come.  Men 
are  learning  to  do  things  on  a  colossal  scale. 
The  ends  of  the  earth  are  brought  near  as  scien- 
tific enterprise  diminishes  distance  and  breaks 
down  barriers.  It  would  seem  that  the  logic 
of  Christianity  cannot  much  longer  be  obscured, 
and  that  ere  long  right-minded  men  everywhere 
will  awake  to  its  inspiring  vision  and  hopeful 
prophecy  of  a  great  beneficent  commonwealth 
of  nations,  the  Republic  of  God. 


XVI. 
OUR    DUMB    NEIGHBORS. 

\17E  have  everywhere  assumed  that  allevia- 
^^  tion  of  pain  and  promotion  of  happiness 
belong  to  that  service  which  the  law  of  Christ 
commands.  If  this  assumption  is  correct,  we 
have  a  duty  of  compassion  towards  our  "  earth- 
born  companion  and  fellow-mortal,"  whose  inno- 
cent delights  and  helpless  distresses  appeal  to 
every  generous  spirit.  Even  if  we  could  ignore 
the  question  of  what  is  due  to  them,  it  remains 
true  that  our  treatment  of  the  lower  animals  re- 
acts powerfully  on  our  own  character.  We 
cannot  be  unfeeling  in  our  treatment  of  any 
living  creature  without  hardening  and  debasing 
ourselves ;  we  cannot  deal  generously  with 
brutes  and  be  altogether  mean  and  selfish  in 
our  dealings  with  men. 

"  I  'm  truly  sorry  man's  dominion 
Has  broken  nature's  social  union," 

says  the  exquisite    little    poem    above    quoted. 
Literature  contains  many  a  kind   word   for  the 
6  8i 


82  ^be  Xavv  ot  Service 

creatures  who  cannot  speak  for  themselves.  It 
could  not  be  otherwise,  since  literature  is  the 
utterance  of  what  is  better  and  finer  in  the  ex- 
perience of  mankind.  It  is  probably  true,  how- 
ever, that  in  English-speaking  countries  at  least 
there  is  far  more  of  interest  in  these  and  affec- 
tion for  them  than  finds  expression  or  recogni- 
tion in  books.  It  is  certain  that  among  us,  in 
spite  of  barbarous  custom,  inherited  indifference, 
and  narrow-mindedness,  there  is  a  very  great 
aggregate  of  gentleness  and  respect  for  our 
humbler  fellow-creatures.  This  should  be  mat- 
ter of  thought  as  well  as  impulse,  of  duty  as  well 
as  pleasure.  Good  feeling  should  be  sanctioned 
and  supplemented  by  reason.  Natural  justice 
in  this  regard  should  get  recognition  as  an  in- 
tegral part  of  Christian  righteousness. 

The  evolutionist  view  which  claims  kinship 
for  lower  life  with  higher,  and  makes  differ- 
ences, how^ever  great,  differences  in  degree 
rather  than  in  kind,  is  certainly  worthy  of  re- 
spectful attention.  It  cannot  be  laughed  down 
by  prejudiced  ignorance,  nor  suppressed  by  timid 
conservatism.  Its  general  acceptance  might  go 
far,  practically,  to  secure  due  consideration  for 
our  kin  of  low  degree  ;  and  we  venture  to  hope 
that  not  many  decades  hence  the  prevalence  of 
a  more  scientific  view  concerning  consciousness, 
rudimentary  reason,  and  rudimentary  morality 
in  the  lower  animals,  with  or  without  discovery 
of  the  "  missing  link,"  will  have  combined  with 


©ur  2)umb  IReigbbors  83 

an  ever-increasing  humaneness  of  sentiment  to 
make  cruelty  to  animals  quite  as  disreputable 
as  cruelty  to  children  is  now.  But,  however 
this  may  be,  it  wants  only  common  sense,  com- 
mon feeling,  and  honest  dealing  with  the  facts 
to  make  the  claims  of  this  subject  evident  and 
profoundly  affecting.  Indeed  the  perception  of 
abuses,  the  impulse  of  sympathy,  the  private 
protest,  is  common.  It  wants  agitation,  ex- 
change of  views,  combination  of  forces,  and 
aggressive  action  to  develop  the  latent  force 
into  an  onward  movement  that  cannot  be  with- 
stood, because  it  will  have  all  that  is  best  in 
civilization  behind  it. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  set  forth  in  painful 
and  sickening  detail  the  sufferings  of  laboring 
animals  from  overwork,  the  lash  of  brutal  mas- 
ters, and  neglect  ;  the  meanness  of  petty  torture 
to  which  horses — and  humane  citizens  who  look 
on — are  constantly  subjected  on  our  streets  ; 
the  brutalities  of  the  race-track  ;  the  abuse  in- 
flicted on  beautiful  and  innocent  wild  creatures 
in  the  name  of  sport. 

Readers  of  Shakespeare's  As  You  Like  It  will 
remember  the  evidence  that  even  in  his  cruel  age 
men  were  not  blind  to  such  things  ;  yet  in  our  hu- 
maner  times  public  sentiment  does  not  condemn 
the  reckless  "sport"  which  is  certain  to  inflict 
sharp  suffering  and  often  the  protracted  miseries 
of  a  lingering  death.  The  pathos  of  a  story  like 
Warner's  A-Himting  of  the  Deer^  while  it  softens 


84  ^be  %a\v  of  Service 

the  heart  in  sympathy  for  the  victim,  hardens  it 
towards  the  pursuer  with  a  resentment  impatient 
of  the  proprieties  of  speech.  Cooper's  Leather- 
Stockings  that  wise  old  foster-child  of  nature, 
though  he  lives  by  his  rifle,  yet  condemns  the 
vulgar  rapacity  of  wholesale  slaughter.  The 
day  will  come,  please  God,  when  all  cruel  sport 
will  be  banned  and  despised,  along  with  bull- 
fighting and  bear-baiting. 

Grant  all  that  can  be  fairly  claimed  of  excuse 
for  those  who  do  as  others  have  done,  half- 
unconscious  of  the  wrong.  Make  all  the  allow- 
ances that  science  will  justify  as  to  the  lower 
consciousness  of  brutes  and  their  supposed  im- 
munity from  apprehensions  about  the  future  or 
regrets  for  the  past.  Still  the  facts,  both  as  to 
the  aggregate  of  needless  suffering  and  as  to  the 
heartless  tyranny  of  those  who  inflict  or  permit 
it,  are  simply  heart-breaking  ;  they  are  a  disgrace 
not  only  to  a  civilization  that  calls  itself  Christian, 
and  to  a  church  that  is  too  busy  with  itself  to 
regard  them,  but  to  our  common  humanity. 

Poetry  and  science  are  widely  different  in 
method,  yet  they  have  much  in  common.  The 
true  poet,  like  the  true  scientist,  is  a  loving  and 
reverent  observer,  a  student  of  nature.  What 
Longfellow  wrote  of  Agassiz, 

"  And  he  wandered  away  and  away 
With  Nature,  the  dear  old  nurse, 
Who  sang  to  him  night  and  day 
The  rhymes  of  the  universe," 


Out  2)umb  Iftefobbors  85 

might  have  been  written  of  Longfellow  himself. 
In  science  as  in  poetry,  the  imagination  not  only 
stimulates  to  exertion  and  rewards  it  with  de- 
light, but  is  a  necessary  condition  of  the  highest 
achievement.  If  poetry  is  earlier  in  the  field 
with  its  swift  intuition  of  realities,  science  with 
slow  step  but  sure,  correcting  and  verifying,  still 
enlarging  the  borders  of  its  orderly  domain, 
works  evermore  towards  that  central  unity  of 
truth  to  which  all  right  thoughts  and  imagina- 
tions converge  ;  so  that  by-and-by  the  two  clasp 
hands  rejoicing.  Minerva,  goddess  of  wisdom, 
is  rightly  also  goddess  of  poesy.  The  poets 
have  delighted  to  personify  natural  phenomena 
and  the  objects  of  the  visible  world.  For  the 
Hebrew  prophet,  mountains  and  hills  should 
break  forth  into  singing,  and  all  the  trees  of  the 
field  should  clap  their  hands.  To  the  old 
Greeks,  morning  was  the  advent  of  rosy-fingered 
Dawn,  and  the  sun  was  Apollo,  bearer  of  the 
silver  bow.  Their  happy  vision  saw  beautiful 
personalities  in  the  tree  and  the  fountain,  and 
the  ruder  imagination  of  the  inclement  North 
revelled  in  its  terrific  embodiments  of  power 
and  passion.  The  modern  muse,  by  more  knowl- 
edge made  less  bold,  yet 

*'  Finds  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks." 

Wordsworth's  heart 

*'  with  rapture  thrills, 
And  dances  with  the  daffodils." 


S6  Ubc  Xaw  of  Service 

Lowell  recalls  the  time 

'*  When  birds  and  flowers  and  I  were  happy  peers." 

The  lines  of  Burns  To  a  Mountain  Daisy  illus- 
trate that  sympathy  with  nature  which  abounds 
in  modern  poetry — a  sympathy  by  no  means 
confined  to  her  weaker  creatures  and  gentler 
aspects.  Much  of  the  personification  of  which 
we  have  spoken  may  seem  purely  imaginative  ; 
but  in  claiming  some  kinship  with  things  organ- 
ized by  the  mysterious  process  of  life — 

"  But  I  in  June  am  midway  to  believe 
A  tree  among  my  far  progenitors  " — 

the  poets  can  be  taken  more  literally.  A  tree  is 
a  living  creature,  and  who  knows  that  it  has  not 
some  dim  prophetic  stirring  of  consciousness  ? 
A  dog  or  a  horse,  intelligent  and  affectionate — 
let  us  not  dare  to  despise  its  humble  station  in 
the  world  of  conscious  life.  To  do  so  is  to  come 
near  despising  him  who  is  the  giver  of  life,  or 
rather  who  is  life.  Tennyson  speaks  for 
modern  thought  when  he  says  to  the  "  flower 
of  the  crannied  wall," 

"        ...     If  I  could  understand 

What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is." 

The  immanence  of  deity  is  good  theology  and 
good  science.   While  theism  is  learning  the  truth 


^ur  S)umb  IWciabbor^  87 

that  underlies  pantheism,  it  is  not  insignificant 
that  our  American  expounder  of  the  philosophy 
of  evolution  feels  his  way  towards  a  rational  and 
consistent  apprehension  of  the  divine  personal- 
ity. The  author  of  Cosmic  Philosophy  has  also 
written  The  Idea  of  God.  If  all  energy  is  energy 
of  active  deity,  then  in  a  profound  sense  the 
cosmos  is  conscious;  and  the  poet  who  finds 
sympathy  even  in  mountains  and  sunsets  is 
guided  by  his  imagination  to  the  truth.  Where 
the  divine  energy  does  that  organizing  and  in- 
dividualizing work  which  we  name  life,  and 
whose  supreme  product  in  the  highly  developed 
personality  of  man  is  rightly  called  the  image  of 
God,  the  latent  poetic  sensibilities  of  the  people 
agree  with  those  of  the  inspired  singers  in  a 
glad  sense  of  kinship  with  living  things  from 
least  to  greatest.  Let  us  hope  for  a  day  not  far 
distant  when  men,  no  longer  presuming  to  set 
metes  and  bounds,  shall  look  with  reverence  on 
all  the  orders  in  the  hierarchy  of  God-given  life. 
Then,  by  an  irresistible  public  sentiment,  will 
cruelty  to  animals  be  not  only  condemned  but 
forbidden.  Then  life  will  no  longer  be  em- 
bittered and  made  coarse  and  mean  by  the  daily 
spectacle  of  needless  or  wantonly  inflicted 
pain. 


■M^IMf^mM 

^^^0^^^^^^}mM^0y: 

XVII. 
CITIZENSHIP. 

T^HE  colonists  of  Massachusetts  were  right  in 
^  their  theocratic  ideal.  If  they  blundered 
in  policy,  or  erred  through  passion,  mistaking  it 
for  holy  zeal,  or  assumed  that  the  ergo  of  their 
narrow  logic  was  a  T/u/s  saith  the  Lord,  yet  they 
were  right  in  trying  to  make  their  political  estab- 
lishment a  veritable  Kingdom  of  God.  Their 
views  being  what  they  were,  they  must  with  all 
their  might  enforce  obedience  to  them.  All 
honor  to  those  stern  bigots  for  accepting  the 
responsibility  they  believed  in — responsibility 
not  only  for  themselves  but  for  their  neighbors  ! 
If  a  pope  of  Rome  believes  himself  the  vice- 
gerent of  God,  he  has  no  choice  but  to  make 
himself  in  fact,  with  or  without  the  forms,  sov- 
ereign of  all  earthly  sovereigns.  No  American 
theories  respecting  church  and  state  should 
swerve  the  Roman  church  a  hair  from  what  it 
sincerely  holds  to  be  its  duty  in  the  matter  of 
the  public  schools  or  in  any  collision  with  our 
cherished  institutions.     If  any  man  or  party  be- 


Citi^eneblp  Sg 


lieves  that  righteousness  can  be  brought  about 
by  act  of  Congress,  the  plain  duty  is  to  get  a 
suitable  bill  passed  and  its  provisions  enforced. 
Sumptuary  laws,  prohibitions,  protective  tariffs, 
and  force-bills  are  right,  provided  it  can  be 
shown  that  they  will  do  good  and  not  harm. 
Paternal  government  is  good  if  it  will  work. 
Laissez  faire  is  not  the  spirit  or  the  method 
of  Christianity.  I  am  my  brother's  keeper,  and 
I  must,  like  the  Puritans,  shoulder  the  responsi- 
bility. This  is  true  for  all  relations,  political  as 
well  as  personal.  The  danger  with  those  who 
would  lay  the  track  for  the  car  of  progress  is  of 
insincerity,  ignorance,  narrowness,  false  reason- 
ing ;  and  history  shows  how  great  the  danger  is, 
how  frequent  and  costly  the  failure.  Neverthe- 
less, conviction  means  responsibility,  and  re- 
sponsibility means  the  duty  to  act. 

It  was  written  at  a  time  when  direct  political 
reform  was  too  hopeless  to  talk  about  that  "  the 
powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God."  It  is 
still  true  ;  and  as  we  are  ourselves  the  powers 
that  be,  every  man  sovereign  as  well  as  subject, 
and  have  a  fair  field  in  which  to  achieve  reform, 
this  is  no  time  to  shrink  or  scruple  concerning 
our  civil  functions.  Pessimism  is  a  convenient 
cover  for  laziness  or  cowardice.  Whoso  is  too 
sensitive  and  refined  for  active  citizenship  is  too 
nice  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  If  a  man 
counts  his  calling  too  holy  for  this,  count  him  a 
pharisee  or  a  fanatic. 


90  tlbe  Xaw  of  Service 

The  plain  duty  of  the  hour  is  to  carry  the 
moral  idea  into  politics.  With  what  is  wrong 
per  se^  there  should  be  absolutely  no  compro- 
mise. We  are  soberly  told  of  late  in  a  reputa- 
ble magazine  that  the  President  "  must  yield  " 
to  the  spoils  system  "  more  or  less  ;  he  cannot 
help  it."  Is  principle,  then,  out  of  date,  or  is  it 
that  a  man  of  principle  cannot  be  president  ? 
There  have  been  men  who  refused  to  be  forced 
into  wrong-doing,  who  could  die  but  would  not 
yield.  When  the  very  existence  of  the  republic 
is  threatened  by  a  system  as  mean  in  theory  as 
it  is  demoralizing  in  practice,  and  by  the  ras- 
cally abuses  that  are  its  kin,  what  we  need  more 
than  the  temporary  success  of  any  man,  ad- 
ministration, or  party  is  that  one  president 
should  have  the  stubborn  virtue  to  stand  like  a 
rock  against  the  iniquity,  prepared  to  fail  of  sup- 
port or  die  at  his  post  if  need  be.  Then  the 
moral  sentiment  of  the  people  will  come  to  a 
head.  They  will  canonize  him  who  dares  sacri- 
fice himself — rather  they  will  rally  around  him 
and  prove  that  right,  after  all,  is  might.  Our 
public  virtue  is  able,  let  it  but  discover  itself,  to 
cast  out  this  devil  of  greed  ;  but  they  who  should 
lead  in  all  moral  reform  must  not  be  too  busy 
with  pious  generalities  and  personalities,  too 
much  engrossed  with  selfish  cares  for  this  world 
or  the  other,  too  conservative  of  party  names  or 
party  habits.  He  who  would  serve  God  and 
man  need  not  be   on  the  wrong  side    of  great 


Cftfaensbfp  91 


moral  questions.  He  may  err  in  policy  ;  he 
has  no  right  to  err  in  principle.  Not  to  be  the 
steadfast  enemy  of  political  unrighteousness  is 
treason  to  him  who  ordained  the  state.  Good 
citizens  not  only  hold  the  balance  of  power  ; 
directly  or  indirectly  they  hold  the  preponder- 
ance, and  they  may  dictate  to  senates  and  cabi- 
nets if  they  will. 

It  is  not  in  boldly  resisting  what  is  wrong,  or 
fighting  hard  for  the  right,  but  in  their  processes 
of  thought,  the  spirit  in  which  they  act,  and  the 
means  they  employ,  that  good  men  go  astray. 
It  is  easier  to  take  things  for  granted  than  to 
weigh  and  consider  ;  easier  to  follow  the  crowd 
than  to  pick  one's  own  way  ;  easier  to  take 
headstrong  will  for  single-hearted  devotion,  than 
to  try  one's  own  spirit,  whether  it  be  of  God. 
Our  plea  for  vigorous  aggressive  citizenship  is 
by  necessary  implication  a  plea  for  catholicity, 
culture,  diligent  study  of  public  questions,  dis- 
interested purpose  to  be  on  the  right  side  re- 
gardless of  consistency  or  tradition,  of  popular 
clamor  or  the  party  whip.  The  inoffensive  con- 
servatism of  the  average  good  Christian  tends 
to  make  him  exactly  what  he  ought  not  to  be,  a 
steady-going,  obedient  partisan.  It  is  this  kind 
of  partisanship  which  enables  bad  leaders  to 
keep  the  forces  of  good  men  divided  and  defeat 
the  virtue  of  the  people.  Parties  there  must 
be,  but  they  should  stand  for  opposing  doctrines 
and  policies,  not  remain  divided  on  dead  issues 


92  Zbc  %a\v  of  Service 

and  fighting  for  public  plunder.  Take  the 
loaves  and  fishes  out  of  politics,  hold  officials 
accountable  not  to  party  but  to  law  and  public 
opinion  ;  then  the  way  is  open  for  division  on 
living  questions  and  the  manly  championship  of 
convictions.  When  they  will,  they  who  believe 
in  the  higher  law  can  abolish  the  spoils  system, 
explode  the  fallacy  of  subservient  party  loyalty, 
and  bring  statesmanship  to  the  front.  No  mere 
^a^  will  accomplish  this;  it  requires  time,  studi- 
ous devotion,  and  hard  sense  :  but  the  essential 
condition  is  that  good  men  assert  themselves  and 
insist  on  the  moral  law.  They  hold  the  key  to  the 
situation.  When  they  are  fully  convinced  that 
Christianity  must  actually  be  applied  to  politics, 
reform  will  come,  slowly,  no  doubt,  but  surely  ; 
and  beautiful  upon  the  mountains  will  be  the 
feet  of  them  that  bring  its  good  tidings. 

In  reaction  from  "  spread-eagle  "  patriotism 
and  in  contempt  for  "  wigwam "  rhetoric,  we 
must  not  forget  or  belittle  the  grandeur  of  our 
national  ideal.  Truth  is  not  the  antithesis  of 
poetry  ;  poetry  is  the  illumination  of  truth, 
Macaulay  tells  us  how  the  Puritans  conceived 
the  dignity  of  manhood  in  its  relations  to  God 
and  destiny,  and  they  were  right.  If  so  much 
is  true  of  individual  man,  what  shall  express  the 
greatness  of  a  nation,  to  whose  momentous  con- 
cerns those  of  the  individual  are  as  small  dust 
in  the  balance  !  The  organ  music  of  Webster's 
eloquence   could   suggest  but    not    express  the 


Citiscnsbip  93 


majesty  of  his  theme.  Lincohi  at  Gettysburg, 
that 

"  stalwart  man 
Limbed  like  the  old  heroic  breeds," 

chose  well  in  calm,  plain  words  to  pay  immor- 
tal honor  to  the  martyrs  of  a  cause  that  shames 
the  epic.  Fittest  of  all,  posterity  may  pro- 
nounce that  strain  of  pious  gratitude  which 
warms  to  the  impassioned  tribute  of  a  lover,  as 
the  Commemoration  Ode,  thrilling  with  the 
ardor  of  a  tried  devotion,  sings  the  unspeakable 
sweetness  of  its  praise.  We  cannot  exaggerate 
the  absolute  significance  of  the  nation.  In  its 
service  our  law  bids  us  add  to  integrity  and 
Puritan  zeal  the  wisdom  of  history,  the  broad 
intelligence  of  the  scholar,  and  the  steady,  far- 
seeing  devotion  of  the  man  of  affairs. 


XVIII. 


BUSINESS  AND  INDUSTRY. 


IF  there  is  "  no  friendship  in  trade,"  it  is  be- 
*  cause  trade  is  war.  Whether  acknowledged, 
ignored,  or  disavowed,  this  is  the  view  according 
to  which  perhaps  the  greater  part  of  our  busi- 
ness enterprise  is  conducted.  The  doctrine  has 
good  ground  in  history  ;  it  is  good  descriptive 
science.  In  the  process  of  evokition,  the  period 
of  struggle  for  existence  and  survival  of  the 
strongest  has  not  come  to  an  end.  Civilization 
has  made  all  warfare  more  humane,  but  it  is 
warfare  still.  Conservatism  would  keep  up  the 
fight  ;  but  the  Law  of  Service  is  radical.  For 
hostility  and  exclusiveness  between  nations  it 
would  substitute  good-will,  the  closest  relations, 
and  the  peaceful  arbitrament  of  law  ;  so  among 
men  and  classes  of  men  it  would  do  away  with 
the  wasteful  competitive  scramble  for  means  to 
live,  and  bring  in  an  age  of  co-operation  with 
mutual  benefit.  If  civilization  is  endless  war- 
fare, then  civilization  is  no  finality,  and  we  must 
fight,  if  need  be,  for  something  better.     Rather, 

94 


:©u6fne66  anC)  tTnOustr^  95 

for  it  as  for  all  that   pertains   to  manhood,  we 
will  insist  upon  a  more  generous  definition. 

A  good  deal  has  been  written  about  the  evils 
of  the  present  state  of  things,  which  need  not 
be  repeated  here.  Poverty  and  suffering,  with 
the  consequent  moral  degradation,  are  not  all. 
War  is  deadly  to  morality  by  its  disturbance  of 
normal  conditions,  and  its  stimulus  to  avarice 
and  reckless  ambition.  With  suffering  for  the 
many,  war  means  brilliant  opportunities  for  the 
few,  and  infinite  temptation  for  all.  Its  prizes 
go  not  to  rounded  and  perfect  manhood,  but  to 
efficiency  in  violence.  It  is  a  school  of  certain 
virtues,  but  not  of  virtue.  The  economic  warfare 
with  which  we  have  here  to  do  is  less  ennobling 
and  in  some  ways  more  debasing  than  its  more 
tumultuous  namesake.  Of  self-sacrifice  it 
knows  nothing.  Its  cruelty  is  not  that  of  short- 
lived passion,  but  cold-blooded.  The  fighting 
is  not  brief  and  decisive,  nor  intermittent. 
This  warfare  remembers  no  peace,  it  looks  for- 
ward to  none  ;  it  knows  no  normal  standard  by 
which  to  judge  itself.  Rather  it  deems  itself 
normal,  and  makes  the  case  hopeless  by  calling 
evil  good.  Such  is  economic  warfare,  pure  and 
simple.  From  rumsellers  and  railroad  wreck- 
ers to  respectable  men  of  business,  there  are  all 
gradations  between  bold  championship  of  the  sin 
and  honest  protest  against  it  ;  but  on  the  whole 
the  system  in  which  we  are  all  entangled  is  at 
best  a  lame  compromise,  and  at  worst  an  outrage. 


96  XLbc  ILavv  of  Service 

The  remedy,  of  course,  is  co-operation  ;  for 
co-operation  is  simply  obedience  to  that  law  of 
the  universe  which  no  man  or  system  can  per- 
manently withstand.  The  word  is  not  used 
here  in  any  narrow  and  special  sense,  as  if  a 
nostrum  had  been  discovered  to  cure  all  eco- 
nomic ills  ;  but  in  its  larger  meaning  it  is  used 
with  undoubting  confidence.  The  proposition 
that  co-operation  will  right  industrial  and  com- 
mercial wrongs  is  like  the  proposition  that  heat 
will  melt  ice  ;  it  is  according  to  the  nature  of 
things.  In  God's  world,  because  it  is  God's 
world,  the  Law  of  Love  is  not  only  of  obligation 
but  will  work  when  applied.  It  is  the  duty  and 
therefore  the  interest  of  the  master  to  serve  the 
servant.  Mill-owner  owes  service  to  loom- 
tender,  as  well  as  loom-tender  to  mill-owner  ; 
buyer  to  seller  and  seller  to  buyer  ;  farmer  to 
mechanic  and  mechanic  to  farmer  ;  every  one  of 
every  class  to  every  other  of  every  class.  The 
eternal  welfare  of  one  and  all  hangs  on  conform- 
ity to  this  principle  ;  and  not  only  Scripture 
and  reason  but  experience  shows  that  godli- 
ness, which  is  manliness,  is  profitable  for  this  life 
as  well  as  for  any  other.  To  utilize  the  gifts  of 
nature,  every  class,  every  guild,  every  legitimate 
business  needs  the  friendly  aid  of  every  other. 
To  win  the  greatest  aggregate  of  benefits  for  all, 
the  enormous  waste  of  working  at  cross  pur- 
poses must  be  eliminated.  Of  energy  to  be 
harnessed,  of  treasure  to  be  unearthed,  of  fer- 


:fiSu9incs5  anD  Hn^ustr^  97 

tility  to  be  made  fruitful,  there  is  enough  for  all. 
In  the  irresistible  process  of  modern  activities, 
men  and  classes  are  constrained  to  work 
together,  notwithstanding  hostile  rivalries.  By 
the  operation  of  economic  law,  division  of 
labor  and  combination  of  forces  have  come  to 
stay.  We  have  imperfect  co-operation,  and  war 
along  with  it.  The  morning  paper  tells  of 
private  war  with  Winchester  rifles  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  irrepressible  conflict  between 
capital  and  labor  under  present  conditions  is  no 
new  conflict  when  it  takes  this  shape  ;  we  only 
see  its  true  character  more  vividly  brought  out. 
On  the  same  day  a  great  religious  convention 
meets  in  New  York.  While  more  than  one 
newspaper  advocates  arbitration — the  method 
of  peace — it  is  significant  that  one  calls 
attention  to  this  as  a  great  opportunity  for 
Christian  endeavor,  and  suggests  that  the  con- 
vention offer  the  services  of  arbitrators.  "  If  they 
settle  the  Homestead  trouble,  they  will  make 
a  ten-strike  .  .  .  for  Christianity."  Whatever 
the  practical  merits  of  the  proposition,  the  news- 
paper man  is  right  in  his  idea  of  what  Christian- 
ity is  for,  and  many  a  zealous  delegate  would  do 
well  to  meditate  on  his  words.  It  is  the  work  of 
Christianity  not  only  to  stay  such  incidental 
bloodshed  as  it  may,  but  to  learn  itself  and  teach 
the  world  the  essential  immorality  of  all  busi- 
ness in  which  one  man's  gain  means  another's 
loss,  and  of  all  business  relations  which  are  re- 


98  tTbe  Xaw  ot  Service 

lations  of  hostility.  There  is  a  great  work  yet 
to  do  in  ridding  the  public  mind  of  the  hideous 
doctrine  that  social  classes  owe  nothing  to  each 
other,  and  the  belief  that  unchecked  competition 
is  a  blessing.  There  is  much  to  do  in  forcing 
attention  to  the  truth  that  the  Christian  rule  of 
life  in  all  its  uncompromising  strictness  does  ab- 
solutely apply  to  business.  Then  there  is  the 
constructive  work,  already  begun  in  some  quar- 
ters, of  showing  that  righteousness  in  business 
is  profitable  as  well  as  practicable.  It  may  be 
claimed  that  out  and  out  co-operation  offers  less 
opportunity  for  personal  advancement  and  dis- 
tinction.* A  similar  argument  might  be  used 
against  peace  between  nations.  Greedy  ambition 
finds  what  it  wants  in  war,  and  the  misfortune  of 
many  is  the  opportunity  of  a  few.  The  Devil  is 
welcome  to  whatever  force  there  is  in  this  conten- 
tion— if  monopoly  and  despotism  are  good  things, 
let  us  have  economic  warfare  to  bring  them 
about.  The  millionaire  gets  his  board  and 
clothes  with  plenty  of  hard  work.  If  business 
were  better  managed  he  would  not  go  naked  and 
hungry,  or  be  condemned  to  idleness.  Men  with 
force  in  them  legitimately  enjoy  distinction  and 
the  sense  of  power.  Personal  superiority  and 
individual  leadership  could  not  be  abolished  by 
the  humane,  rational  conduct  of  affairs.  "  Peace 
hath  her  victories,"  too.  There  will  be  enough 
to  make  life  interesting  and  strenuous — we  need 
not   fear.     When  it  begins  to  appear  that   the 


3Bustnc66  anO  llnDustri^  99 

altruistic  way  of  living,  fairly  tried,  is  "  stale, 
flat,  and  unprofitable,"  it  will  then  be  time  to 
look  for  a  better  way.  It  is  high  time  now  to 
give  Christianity  the  final  test  by  applying  it  on 
the  largest  possible  scale.  It  may  be  objected 
that  we  are  telling  an  old  story,  and  dealing  in 
generalities.  Very  true — everybody  knows  the 
unhappy  facts  we  have  mentioned,  and  every- 
body knows  the  Law  of  Love  ;  but  everybody 
knows,  too,  that  the  facts  are  widely  accepted  as 
if  normal,  and  the  law  treated  as  if  it  would  not 
work.  There  are  certain  old  stories  that  must 
be  told  until  their  lesson  is  learned.  We  do  deal 
in  generalities.  We  have  no  specific  with  which 
to  dose  the  symptoms  of  disease — no  mechanical 
scheme  for  bringing  in  a  manufactured  mil- 
lennium. There  are  certain  general  truths  which 
must  be  repeated  until  they  are  heartily  be- 
lieved. The  evolution  in  detail  of  a  civilization 
in  which  the  evils  of  the  present  day  shall  be 
minimized,  no  man  can  now  trace  out.  Obey 
the  Law  of  Service  according  to  present  light, 
and  that  civilization  will  come  ;  and  every  least 
act  of  obedience  counts  towards  such  a  consum- 
mation. Let  it  be  written  large  and  plain  that 
in  the  affairs  of  men  CHRISTIANITY  IS  CO- 
OPERATION. 

There  is  another  aspect  of  the  subject  which 
is  too  little  regarded  at  present,  whether  for  the 
general  welfare  or  for  the  interests  of  business 
and    labor.      The    wonderful    development    of 


loo  ^be  Xavv  of  Service 

machinery  has  tended  to  make  working  men  into 
machine-feeders  rather  than  artisans  in  the  bet- 
ter sense.  While  mechanical  devices  come  to  act 
more  and  more  as  if  endowed  with  reason,  it 
would  almost  seem  as  if  the  workman  in  some 
cases  were  becoming  part  of  the  machine.  In- 
ventiveness is  powerfully  stimulated,  along  with 
organizing  and  administrative  talent.  Attractive 
and  lucrative  careers  are  opened  to  the  few,  but 
for  many  there  is  dull  routine,  with  little  in 
their  calling  to  awaken  hope  or  warm  the  imagi- 
nation. The  tremendous  movement  and  swift 
vicissitude  of  modern  life,  especially  in  America, 
are  not  favorable  to  the  homely  pieties,  the  racy 
individuality,  the  traditions  of  good  workman- 
ship that  we  admire  in  the  handicraftsmen  of 
earlier  times  and  more  primitive  conditions. 
Swift  changes  have  not  given  time  for  suitable 
readjustments.  A  balance-wheel  greatly  needed 
in  our  system  is  the  good  old-fashioned  work- 
man's conscience. 

Older  and  more  universal  than  the  tendency 
to  mechanical  drudgery  of  which  we  have  spoken 
is  the  tendency  of  labor  to  become  sordid  and 
servile,  fenced  off  from  generous  aspiration  by 
barriers  of  caste  which  it  goes  far  itself  towards 
justifying.  All  the  more,  then,  the  law  and  gos- 
pel of  good  work  need  to  be  preached  in  ring- 
ing words  like  Ruskin's,  and  the  shams  of  an  age 
that  makes  haste  to  be  rich  need  to  be  de- 
nounced after  the  stalwart  fashion  of  Carlyle. 


:JSu0fne60  an^  Ifnbiistrg  lot 

Money-lovers,  as  Raskin  himself  has  told  us, 
cannot  understand  Christ  ;  but  in  plain  workers, 
high  or  low,  there  is  a  spark  of  manhood  that 
will  kindle  under  the  breath  of  his  prophets. 
The  habit  of  good  workmanship  is  a  tonic  to 
the  conscience,  a  sedative  to  turbulent  passion, 
a  school  of  preparation  for  just  thinking  on  the 
great  questions  of  life.  It  were  a  mistake  to 
suppose  that  this  habit  can  no  longer  be  culti- 
vated, or  that  it  can  be  made  prevalent  only  by 
reactionary  methods,  by  damming  the  stream  in- 
stead of  directing  it.  The  machine-tenders, 
whose  work  is  little  more  than  automatic,  are 
few  in  comparison  with  the  whole  multitude  of 
workmen.  The  character  of  the  worker  is  still  a 
very  important  factor  in  the  product  of  his 
work.  Upon  his  character  still,  in  the  main,  de- 
pends his  prosperity.  Where  the  situation  is  so 
bad  that  the  workman's  hands  are  tied,  and  merit 
cannot  win  advancement,  there  is  a  plague-spot, 
for  whose  cleansing  what  is  best  in  the  humane 
spirit  of  the  age  is  becoming  more  and  more  en- 
listed. Such  barbarisms,  we  may  trust,  are 
doomed.  Both  master  and  man,  producer, 
handler,  and  consumer  alike,  are  vitally  interested 
in  good  work.  Nothing  but  enlightenment  and 
moral  forces  will  avail  to  get  it  done.  Again,  in- 
stead of  offering  a  handy,  quick-working  specific 
for  setting  things  right,  we  are  dealing  in  gener- 
alities— telling  an  old  story.  If  we  can  generalize 
soundly  and  tell  the  truth  pointedly,  it  is  enough. 


102  tXbe  Xavv  of  Service 

Tolstoi  lately  urged  his  visitor  to  join  the 
Ruskin  Society,  pledged  to  wearing  hand-made 
apparel,  and  to  living  without  "  usury."  *'  Great 
wits  are  sure  to  madness  near  allied."  What- 
ever truth  Ruskin  has  taught  is  none  the  less 
true  for  some  unloveliness  in  the  man,  nor  for 
the  break-down  of  his  mind  in  his  later  years, 
nor  for  any  earlier  vagaries  of  his  strenuous 
thinking.  All  his  life  Tolstoi  has  been  in  the 
midst  of  that  bad,  half-barbarous  system  of 
splendor  and  squalor  whose  miseries  have  been 
so  fearfully  illustrated  in  these  days  ;  and  if  the 
truth  of  Christianity  has  wrought  mightily  in 
him  we  cannot  wonder  that  it  has  wrought  also 
strangely.  We  may  not  flippantly  reject  the 
message  of  great  men.  Give  us  the  penetrating 
insight  of  genius  and  the  self-renunciation  of 
sainthood,  rather  than  the  smug  worldly  wisdom 
of  selfish  mediocrity,  and  let  us  cheerfully  take 
the  risks.  Accepting  the  substantial  verities  of 
Tolstoi's  teaching  and  Ruskin's,  we  may  yet 
hold  that  this  restless  modern  stream  of  energy 
ought  to  be  converted,  not  resisted.  To-day  it 
bears  hard  on  some  fraction  of  the  world's  toil- 
ers. The  productive  activity  of  the  last  fifty 
years  has  been  applied  to  saving  time  and  per- 
fecting material  engineries,  rather  than  saving 
manhood  to  make  good  use  of  time,  and  per- 
fecting institutions  to  make  possible  the  enlarge- 
ment of  manhood.  The  wonderful  work  of 
material  progress  will  go  on  ;  but  we  may  rea- 


JBu0ine55  ant)  irnC)U6tr^  103 


sonably  hope  that  an  increasing  proportion  of 
the  best  gifts  will  be  devoted  to  the  higher  work 
of  learning  how  to  minimize  rude  toil,  improve 
its  conditions,  raise  its  standards,  and  enlarge 
its  hopes.  We  may  believe  that  the  intellect 
which  has  made  possible  so  vast  production  and 
circulation  will  add  economy  to  efficiency  ;  will 
show  men  not  only  how  to  find  means  to  live, 
but  how  to  live  in  a  rational  way,  to  use  as  well 
as  get,  to  rest  and  play  as  well  as  labor.  Great 
exploitation  of  natural  resources  does  not  involve 
the  necessity  of  brutalizing  men.  Cheap  and 
swift  production  does  not  necessitate  poor  work. 
The  inventive  impulse  is  not  at  fault  if  creative 
has  outstripped  conservative  genius,  if  hitherto 
we  have  shown  more  skill  than  wisdom.  The 
benign  spirit  of  Service  will  prove  that  the  same 
wits  which  have  achieved  riches  and  power  can 
achieve  prosperity. 


XIX. 

ART. 

O  HALL  it  be  art  for  art's  sake  ?  Yes,  and  no. 
^  The  sense  of  beauty  is  a  sense  of  God,  in 
whom  and  of  whom  all  beauty  is.  The  art-im- 
pulse, showing  itself  in  all  climes  and  ages,  its 
product  ranging  from  rudest  barbaric  forms  to 
the  masterpieces  of  ancient  sculpture,  modern 
music,  literature  ancient  and  modern,  is  no  more 
to  be  ignored  than  the  beauty  of  the  skies  ;  no 
more  to  be  suppressed  than  human  nature  is  to 
be  suppressed.  Beauty  is  the  stamp  of  whole- 
someness  ;  innocent  delight  is  both  a  cause  and 
an  effect  of  well-being.  As  pain  is  an  evil,  so 
pleasure  is  a  good.  In  itself,  then,  the  produc- 
tion of  the  beautiful  for  the  love  of  it  is  inno- 
cent and  right.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a 
higher  beauty  of  the  spirit,  a  moral  order  and 
harmony  which  is  of  transcendent  worth.  The 
music  of  the  universe  is  jarred  upon  by  the  dis- 
cord of  sin,  and  the  hoarse  cry  of  pain  drowns 
its  sweetest  notes.  Christ  must  needs  suffer  to 
put  the  world  in  tune — but  he  was  not  an  artist. 

104 


Brt  105 

His  service,  which  is  the  service  of  men,  can 
never  ignore  the  highest  motive  and  the  central 
law.  If  art  for  art's  sake  means  an  activity  that 
is  not  devoted  to  the  common  welfare,  it  is  pagan 
and  not  Christian.  The  Law  of  Service,  then, 
makes  no  exception  here.  The  source  of  beauty 
and  the  source  of  moral  law  are  one. 

The  good  w^orkman  loves  his  work,  and  all 
high  endeavor  demands  concentration.  He 
whose  duty  it  is  to  paint  a  picture  or  write  a 
sonata  must  devote  himself  to  that  with  gladness 
and  singleness  of  heart.  Nevertheless,  unless 
he  can  relate  his  work  to  the  common  welfare, 
it  is  not  his  duty  ;  he  is  forbidden  to  touch  it. 
The  deification  of  art,  being  like  other  idolatries 
a  worship  of  falsehood,  violates  the  fundamental 
principles  of  art,  and  substitutes  confusion  for 
the  beautiful  order  of  the  universe.  A  right  de- 
votion to  it  not  only  makes  for  innocent  and 
wholesome  delight,  and  trains  its  votary  to  the 
patient,  workmanlike  use  of  his  powers,  but, 
teaching  his  senses  to  perceive,  his  mind  to  un- 
derstand, his  spirit  to  feel  the  beauty  and  har- 
mony of  the  creative  thought,  it  gives  him 
enlargement  and  symmetry,  refinement,  affinity 
for  True  and  Good,  as  well  as  Beautiful, 

One  chief  use  of  art,  then,  is  in  the  education 
of  youth.  Guided  by  the  same  exacting  prin- 
ciple which  may  make  us  seem  to  the  artist 
narrow-minded  and  puritanical,  we  shall  claim 
for  art  such  recognition  in  the  schools  as  should 


io6  trbe  Xaw  of  Service 

satisfy  its  best  friends.  Study  of  form  and  de- 
sign, of  color  and  the  harmony  of  colors,  train- 
ing of  hand  and  eye,  instruction  in  the  simple 
and  useful  dicta  of  good  taste,  should  be  com- 
pulsory in  all  elementary  schools,  and  should 
have  an  honorable  place  in  the  whole  system  of 
education.  Of  literature  as  a  fine  art,  more  is 
said  elsewhere.  Suffice  it  to  remark  here  that 
imagination  and  sense  of  literary  form  can  and 
ought  to  be  systematically  cultivated  from  the 
earliest  years  of  school  training,  and  the  memory 
stored  with  those  treasures  of  sweetness  and 
wisdom  in  which  literature  is  so  rich.  Music 
belongs  to  a  rational  education,  not  as  an  in- 
cidental exercise  dependent  on  the  educator's 
taste  or  whim,  nor  as  a  formal  function,  nor  for 
the  benefit  of  a  minority  with  special  gifts  ;  but 
as  a  study  for  all,  regularly  and  scientifically 
pursued.  There  may  be  some  so  abnormal  that 
they  cannot  learn  the  rudiments  ;  but,  such 
cases  excepted,  every  child  who  has  passed 
through  the  common  schools  should  be  able  to 
read  music  with  facility  and  to  sing  an  easy  air 
at  sight,  and  should  be  familiar  with  the  ordinary 
nomenclature  and  simpler  principles  of  the 
science.  This  rudimentary  training  in  art 
ought  to  be  related  to  the  great  world  of  nature 
by  constant  reference  to  its  forms,  colors,  and 
sounds,  to  the  wonderful  activities  and  processes 
of  its  life.  The  elements  of  the  natural  sciences 
may  thus  be  studied  with  greater  scientific  profit, 
and  with  far  greater  delight. 


;art  107 

It  is  easy  to  object  that  much  of  this,  while  it 
may  look  well  on  paper,  is  impracticable  ;  that 
teachers  are  subject  to  human  limitations, 
school  life  is  short,  and  its  work  is  already  too 
exacting.  The  answer  is  that  education,  so 
far,  is  hardly  taken  more  seriously  than  Christi- 
anity. Present  incapacity  establishes  nothing 
as  to  what  can  or  cannot  be  done  in  the  future, 
and  there  is  no  presumption  that  what  is  now 
required  of  the  schools  is  ideal  in  kind  or  in 
quantity.  It  may  be  suspected  that  progress  is 
needlessly  slow,  through  lack  of  spirit,  faulty 
methods,  and  inflexibility,  and  that  much  of  the 
subject-matter  could  be  eliminated  without  ma- 
terial loss.  At  any  rate,  every  reasonable  claim 
ought  to  be  vigorously  advocated,  and  the  best 
gifts  devoted  both  to  perfecting  the  theory  of 
education  and  to  reforming  its  practice. 

The  college  graduate  is  supposed  to  begin  life 
with  no  great  learning,  to  be  sure,  but  sym- 
metrically developed,  trained  to  the  use  of 
material  and  means,  and  acquainted  with  estab- 
lished principles  in  the  great  departments  of 
thought.  He  is  thus  not  only  disciplined  for 
work,  but  equipped  for  the  criticism  of  life  and 
the  appreciation  of  what  it  has  to  offer.  He  is 
not  a  geologist  or  a  mathematician,  but  he  ought 
to  understand  the  methods  of  science,  and  the 
conditions  of  demonstration.  Elsewhere,  though 
modest,  he  feels  his  power  ;  but  in  respect  to 
the  general  subject  of  art,  he  is  comparatively 
impotent.     He    may    have    special    accomplish- 


io8  tlbe  Xaw  of  Service 

nients,  or  be  indebted  to  favorable  circum- 
stances ;  but  as  a  college  graduate  he  knows 
next  to  nothing  of  aesthetic  criticism,  and  is  at 
sea  with  respect  to  the  principles  of  art,  if  there 
be  any.  His  whole  general  training  would  lead 
him  to  suppose  that  there  are  such  principles, 
and  to  feel  the  need  of  that  acquaintance  with 
them  which  has  been  denied  him.  A  layman 
may  not  venture  to  affirm  that  the  professional 
artists  and  teachers  of  art  are  too  empirical  in 
their  methods,  and  the  art-critics  are  fanciers 
and  phrase-mongers  rather  than  qualified 
judges  ;  but  an  educated  person  may  justly 
complain  if  he  has  been  taught  nothing  system- 
atic and  comprehensive  on  so  important  a  sub- 
ject. It  belongs  to  good  general  culture,  if  art 
is  essentially  empirical,  to  know  it  and  to  know 
why  ;  if  it  has  some  scanty  outfit  of  doctrine 
with  limitations,  to  know  the  doctrine  and  the 
limits  ;  if  it  can  be  rationally  discussed  and  put 
on  an  intellectual  level  with  other  great  subjects 
of  thought,  to  be  conversant  with  its  main  out- 
lines, and  prepared  to  begin  intelligently,  if 
there  is  occasion,  its  more  thorough  study. 
Teaching  the  elements  of  art  in  the  schools  and 
its  principles  in  the  colleges  would  go  far  to 
correct  the  prevailing  crudeness  of  taste,  and  to 
bring  in  nobler  manners  if  not  purer  laws,  fairer 
dwellings  if  not  happier  homes,  more  tuneful 
worship  if  not  more  generous  service.  The 
intelligent    choice   of   those    things    which    are 


Brt  109 

according  to  the  divine  laws  of  grace  and  har- 
mony must  needs  contribute  somewhat  to  the 
moral  betterment  of  the  world. 

A  right  apprehension  of  the  relation  between 
art  and  morals  leads  naturally  to  a  public- 
spirited  view  concerning  the  legitimate  products 
of  art  and  their  legitimate  use.  Heavy  expendi- 
ture for  personal  adornment,  or  in  pictures, 
statuary,  and  interior  decoration  for  the  luxury 
of  a  few,  is  a  species  of  barbarism  but  thinly 
veneered  by  polish  of  manners  and  refinement 
of  taste  ;  say  rather  that  the  barbarism  is  brought 
out  into  bolder  relief  by  the  refinement  that 
goes  with  it.  Wasteful  in  a  different  way,  but 
to  a  like  effect,  is  costly  decoration  for  tem- 
porary purposes,  sacrificing  the  labor  which 
might  do  great  and  lasting  good  to  the  transient 
gratification  of  an  hour,  the  gayety  of  an  even- 
ing. Imposing  monuments  to  the  dead  are 
perhaps  more  noble  than  splendid  palaces  for 
the  living.  The  former  are  redeemed  somewhat 
by  the  sentiment  they  express,  the  latter  by  the 
publicity  of  their  architecture  ;  but  both,  defi- 
cient in  the  moral  beauty  of  benevolence,  are 
untrue  to  the  broadest  conception  of  art.  "  All 
beauty  lies  in  fitness."  Private  magnificence  is 
not  only  morally  indefensible,  as  we  have  seen, 
but  it  is  aesthetically  incorrect  if  in  proportion 
as  the  beholder  deserves  to  be  pleased  it  gives 
the  reverse  of  pleasure.  It  is  in  the  open  gal- 
leries and  museums,  if  anywhere,  that  the  cost- 


no  ^be  3Law  ot  Service 

liest  works  of  art  should  have  their  home.  It 
is  where  multitudes  resort,  if  anywhere,  that 
splendid  memorials  should  be  erected,  and  to 
those  who  have  deserved  well  of  their  fellow- 
men.  It  is  in  public  buildings  and  public 
works,  in  parks,  in  colleges  and  libraries,  in 
churches,  in  all  institutions  which  express  the 
dignity  of  the  people  and  are  dedicated  to  the 
public  welfare,  in  these  if  anywhere,  that  the 
master-workmen  in  the  noblest  arts  may  draw 
upon  the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  people  to 
embody  their  noblest  and  loveliest  conceptions. 
So  long  as  need  calls  anywhere  for  help  which 
money  can  bestow,  it  is  the  economy  of  service 
to  relieve  generously  rather  than  adorn  with 
lavish  hand.  The  decorative  impulse  is  to  be 
restrained  and  guided  by  the  austerities  of  pure 
art,  not  stimulated  to  barbaric  excess.  If  the 
golden  age  of  virtue  and  abundance  ever  comes, 
it  will  be  time  enough  then  to  vie  with  nature  in 
prodigality  of  ornament  and  delight.  Mean- 
while, we  may  well  take  nature's  pageantry  for 
our  solace,  while  in  the  work  of  our  own  hands 
we  content  ourselves  with  modest  simplicity 
and  the  beauty  that  goes  with  use. 


XX. 


LITERATURE. 


T  ITERATURE  in  the  most  restricted  sense 
-'— '  is  of  course  one  of  the  fine  arts,  and  might 
have  been  considered  under  the  general  subject 
of  art  ;  but  the  name  is  elastic,  and  literature,  in 
every  sense,  is  so  important  in  its  relations  to 
human  welfare  as  to  claim  separate  treatment. 
The  general  views  presented  in  the  chapter  on 
art  apply  to  the  art  literary  as  to  the  others. 
Large  space  might  be  devoted  to  its  educational 
use,  which  is  there  touched  upon.  Inasmuch 
as  ancient  literatures  have  been  traditionally  a 
chief  material  and  means  of  liberal  culture,  and 
the  claims  of  modern  letters  in  this  field  are 
gaining  recognition,  we  may  dismiss  the  subject 
here  with  the  remark  that,  important  as  litera- 
ture is  in  the  higher  education,  it  is  probably 
still  more  so  in  the  lower.  The  rudiments  of  all 
book  learning — the  use  of  the  alphabet  and  the 
simplest  relations  of  quantity — may  be  rapidly 
acquired.  Extraction  of  the  cube  root  and  tabu- 
lation of  sentences  into  the  likeness  of  prostrate 

III 


112  tlbe  Xaw  of  Service 

family  trees  need  not  be  taken  too  seriously. 
Many  things  can  wait,  no  matter  how  long  ;  but 
children  cannot  afford  to  wait  for  the  blessed 
and  precious  experience  of  intercourse  with  the 
best  spirits  of  all  ages.  Good  company,  rarest 
and  best  of  educational  influences,  should  be 
secured  for  every  child  through  literature,  then 
when  he  so  readily  takes  the  indelible  mark 
of  his  surroundings.  World-hardening  begins 
early  ;  for  many  a  child  the  time  is  soon  past 
when  his  spirit  might  have  opened  to  the  pure 
delights  of  the  imagination,  when  his  thoughts 
might  have  been  formed  by  the  graces  of  style 
and  the  persuasiveness  of  truth. 

Whether  we  take  literature  in  the  restricted  or 
in  the  more  inclusive  sense,  in  neither  case  can 
its  moral  and  spiritual  significance  be  justly  left 
out  of  the  account.  The  great  French  historian 
of  English  literature  is  profoundly  impressed 
with  its  ethical  quality.  Pure  art,  non-moral 
and  indifferent  like  pure  mathematics,  he  finds 
conspicuous  by  its  absence.  It  is  well,  we  may 
gladly  believe,  if  the  race  which  is  to  dominate 
the  civilization  of  the  future  is  tremendously  in 
earnest  about  righteousness  ;  and  if  the  power- 
ful language  of  Shakespeare,  fast  spreading  over 
the  whole  earth,  is  the  vehicle  of  a  literature 
which  refuses  to  view  human  life  without  refer- 
ence to  what  is  deepest  in  it.  The  French  are 
good  specialists  ;  but  the  supreme  utterance  of 
the  spirit  of  man  cannot  rationally   be  a  mere 


Xitcrature  113 


specialty,  so  long  as  man  is  supremely  a  moral 
being.  Granted  that  as  no  moral  intention  can 
redeem  a  bad  picture,  so  a  moral  poem  which  is 
not  poetical  deserves  no  quarter.  On  the  other 
hand,  immorality  is  in  the  deepest  sense  bad 
art,  truth  belongs  to  art  as  well  as  to  morals,  and 
art  which  is  non-moral  too  often  becomes  in 
effect  immoral.  Of  this,  French  literature  itself 
is  witness.  The  moral  purpose  need  not  adver- 
tise itself  in  precepts  and  platitudes,  nor  the 
sense  of  responsibility  cramp  the  free  spirit  of 
invention  ;  but  as  of  the  artist,  so  of  the  author 
it  is  true  that  his  work  must  be  conceived  and 
executed  in  righteousness,  and  related  to  the 
well-being  of  the  world,  or  it  has  no  right  to 
exist. 

The  controversy  between  romance  and  real- 
ism may  be  short-lived,  and  doubtless  will  not 
revolutionize  imaginative  writing  ;  but  it  need 
not  be  fruitless.  If  it  leads  to  a  greater  regard 
for  truth  as  opposed  to  conventionalism  and 
extravagance,  and  for  reason  as  opposed  to  sickly 
sentiment,  both  art  and  morals  will  be  greatly 
the  better.  We  need  not  insist  that  the  novelist 
shall  confine  himself  to  the  average  common- 
place in  character  and  events,  any  more  than 
that  the  landscape  artist  shall  get  a  land  sur- 
veyor to  stake  out  his  subjects  ;  but  we  ought 
to  expect  him  to  delineate  real  men  and  women, 
speaking  and  acting  as  they  might,  could,  would 
or  should  speak  and  act,  and  to  relate  events  ac- 


114  ^be  Xaw  Of  Service 

cording  to  the  observed  order  of  nature,  the 
sequence  of  cause  and  effect.  We  expect  to 
read  of  much  that  is  exaggerated  in  sentiment 
and  irrational  in  conduct,  because  there  is  much 
of  it  in  the  world  ;  but  the  novelist's  friendli- 
ness, or  rather  nature's  friendliness  for  what  is 
wholesome  and  sensible  need  not  be  concealed, 
nor  the  weak-headed  and  the  young  deluded 
into  supposing  that  morbidness  is  heroism,  and 
dyspeptic  twaddle  is  eloquence.  It  is  at  least 
gratifying,  if  not  significant,  that  our  chief 
American  realist  is  conspicuous  in  the  maturity 
of  his  powers  for  an  earnest  philanthropic  spirit, 
and  that  he  is  not  the  only  delightful  humorist 
and  master  of  style  whose  work,  thoroughly 
modern  in  its  cool  good  sense,  is  something  more 
than  amusing  or  entertaining. 

Journalism,  in  the  widest  sense,  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  most  important  department  of  the 
literature  of  our  time  ;  although  the  word  litera- 
ture must  be  very  elastic  to  include  it  all.  We 
say  most  important,  not  because  of  the  merit  of 
the  work  done,  nor  from  sympathy  with  aver- 
age journalistic  aims,  but  because  public  senti- 
ment is  so  powerfully  affected  by  the  periodical 
press,  the  thinking  of  the  great  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple so  much  at  its  mercy,  and  the  average 
morality  so  closely  related  to  its  teaching.  With- 
out venturing  on  general  criticism,  we  take  space 
for  a  few  words  on  the  daily  newspaper. 

Business  enterprises  involve  a  large  element 


^Literature  115 


of  risk,  and  a  new  departure  in  journalism  re- 
quires capital ;  but  it  is  not  easy  to  see  why  a 
broad-minded  capitalist  with  a  conscience — 
surely  there  are  such — might  not  wisely  engage 
in  the  novel  enterprise  of  publishing  a  great 
daily,  first-class  in  every  respect,  which  should 
stake  all  on  its  uncompromising  loyalty  to  the 
highest  principle.  Such  a  publication  ought  not 
to  be  sectarian  and  need  not  be  religious,  but 
must  be  essentially  Christian.  Without  parti- 
sanship, that  enemy  of  all  righteousness,  it  must 
be  positive  and  outspoken  on  public  questions. 
With  high  ability,  thorough  investigation  and 
the  courage  of  its  convictions,  it  must  never 
shrink  from  acknowledging  a  mistake,  or  sacri- 
fice candor  to  consistency.  Accounting  it  the 
first  duty  of  journalism,  though  not  its  highest, 
to  present  the  facts — "  all  the  news  and  the 
truth  about  it " — our  newspaper  management 
will  try  to  employ  reporters  who  have  both 
ability  to  discover  the  facts  and  conscience  to 
tell  the  truth.  This  combination  is  too  rare. 
Average  journalism  so  deals  with  news  that  one 
expects  gross  error  in  details,  and  is  not  sur- 
prised at  falsehood  in  important  statements.  It 
would  undoubtedly  cost  something  to  get  good 
reporting  done.  It  would  be  worth  the  cost. 
The  expression  "  all  the  news "  is  indecisive, 
and  much  depends  on  how  it  is  interpreted.  A 
censorship  which  should  keep  the  reader  in 
ignorance  of  important  matters,  whether  pleas- 


ii6  Zbc  3Law  ot  Service 

ant  to  read  about  or  not,  and  screen  the  sub- 
stantial realities  of  the  world's  daily  life  from  a 
virtuous  public,  would  go  far  to  justify  the  in- 
evitable resort  to  journals  more  instructive  if  less 
scrupulous.  On  the  other  hand,  gratification  of 
prurient  curiosity,  the  contemptible  petty  intru- 
siveness  of  the  "  Jenkins  "  reporter,  all  forms  of 
concession  to  the  reader's  vulgarity  or  silliness, 
should  be  stubbornly  forbidden.  The  compe- 
tent purveyor  of  news  will  have  some  notion  of 
the  relative  importance  of  things,  and  avoid  that 
absurd  allotment  of  space  which  is  constantly 
seen  and  now  and  then  remarked  upon.  There 
are  some  occupations,  as  for  instance  disrepu- 
table horse-racing,  whose  character  and  extent 
it  greatly  concerns  good  citizens  to  know,  but 
whose  daily  details,  eagerly  followed  through 
column  after  column  by  fools  and  sharpers,  are 
of  no  rational  and  justifiable  use.  No  parading 
of  piety  or  affectation  of  respectability  can  offset 
the  vulgar  immorality  of  giving  up  large  space 
to  such  things.  In  respect  to  those  popular 
amusements  which  may  be  legitimate  or  may  be 
and  often  are  abused,  the  newspaper  with  a  con- 
science cannot  please  all — it  must  act  according 
to  its  own  light.  Here  as  elsewhere  in  this  diffi- 
cult field,  perfection  is  far  to  seek,  but  here  and 
everywhere  the  duty  of  seeking  it  is  clear.  Im- 
personal and  irresponsible  journalism  is  a  con- 
venient cover  for  unscrupulous  greed.  From 
leading  articles  to  advertisements,  the  hand  of 


Xiterature  117 


a  responsible  management  must  be  constantly 
felt,  and  the  question  must  always  be  not 
merely  what  the  people  demand,  but  what  they 
ought  to  have. 

The  public  not  only  want  the  facts,  but  they 
want  that  combination  and  interpreting  of  the 
facts  for  which  most  of  us  lack  the  special  abil- 
ity and  training  or  the  leisure.  The  clerical 
part  of  this  belongs  to  expert  journalism  ;  the 
higher  and  more  difficult  part  calls  for  the 
broadest  culture,  consummate  ability,  and  the 
rarest  judicial  gifts.  The  honored  names  of 
Bryant  and  Curtis  at  once  suggest  themselves  to 
illustrate  the  lofty  spirit  which  belongs  to  the 
great  editor.  It  is  not  that  people's  opinions  are 
to  be  made  for  them  ;  but  that  the  questions 
and  issues  shall  be  fairly  presented,  with  the 
arguments//'^;  and  con^  and  the  facts  made  ac- 
cessible and  manageable  rather  than  used  for 
partisan  purposes  to  "  prove  "  whatever  suits  the 
acute  journalist's  purpose.  The  people,  as  we 
have  seen,  are  prone  to  forget  the  relation  of 
public  questions  to  moral  law.  It  is  the  duty 
of  journalism  not  to  exploit  the  passion  and 
prejudice  of  the  reader,  but  to  keep  him  remind- 
ed of  the  supreme  importance  of  being  right 
rather  than  being  consistent  or  being  in  the 
majority. 

The  power  for  good  of  a  great  newspaper, 
ably  and  disinterestedly  conducted  on  the  lines 
we  have  pointed   out,   will  hardly  be  seriously 


ii8  Zhc  Xavv  of  Service 

questioned  by  one  who  cares  to  read  these 
pages  ;  but  it  is  easy  to  say  that  the  scheme  is 
quixotic  and  impracticable.  This  contention  has 
a  very  musty  odor  of  antiquity.  We  have  been 
celebrating  the  quadri-centennial  anniversary  of 
one  of  the  occasions  when  such  a  contention  was 
proved  false  ;  and  the  conservative  pessimist  was 
an  old  acquaintance  in  1492.  Neither  men  nor 
newspapers  will  reach  the  ideal  at  present  ;  but 
we  may  and  ought  to  look  for  high  attainment 
in  both.  There  are  men  who  combine  dis- 
tinguished ability  and  disinterested  integrity. 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  managing  and  executive 
talent  in  the  market  ;  recent  American  life  has 
been  an  enormous  training-school  for  it.  While 
this  does  not  always  go  with  scrupulous  morals, 
it  is  careful  to  obey  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand. Let  it  be  understood  that  the  chief  edi- 
tor's demand,  backed  by  the  proprietor,  is  for 
honest  work,  and  honest  work  can  be  secured. 
Convince  the  reporter  that  he  is  paid  for  genu- 
ine investigation,  discrimination  in  matter,  care 
and  moderation  in  statement,  condensation  and 
a  decent  style,  and  he  will  learn  to  take  pride 
where  he  finds  profit — in  good  work.  If  the  blue 
pencil  will  not  bring  him  to  his  senses,  there  will 
be  enough  to  take  his  place.  Demand  does 
create  supply.  But  the  objector  is  impatient  to 
close  the  discussion  with  the  definitive  statement 
that  "  it  will  not  pay."  A  number  of  important 
enterprises  have  survived  the  shock  of  this  argu- 


literature  119 


ment.  It  deserves  mention  that  in  these  days 
when  men  professedly  Christian  and  men  ac- 
tively, though  they  may  be  quietly,  beneficent,  are 
millionaires  with  princely  incomes,  and  when 
great  fortunes  are  bequeathed  for  public  bene- 
fits, not  every  great  enterprise  need  pay  direct 
cash  dividends.  Such  a  newspaper  as  we  have 
proposed  might  do  vastly  more  good  than  any 
pulpit  in  America  It  might  accomplish  more 
for  humane  ends  through  its  influence  on  public 
sentiment  and  its  educational  power  than  socie- 
ties whose  expenditure  is  the  interest  on  millions 
of  capital.  Certainly  there  is  nothing  absurd  or 
wildly  visionary  in  the  idea  of  investment  in  such 
an  enterprise  with  the  public  good  as  prime 
motive.  Again,  intelligent  and  well-disposed 
people  are  exceedingly  numerous,  and  are  pros- 
perous out  of  proportion  to  their  numbers.  If 
the  unprincipled,  the  philistines,  and  the  vicious 
classes  have  hitherto  been  allowed  to  dictate 
largely  the  character  of  the  daily  press,  and  the 
better  classes,  as  usual  slow  to  move,  have  tacitly 
assumed  that  so  it  must  needs  be,  it  does  not 
therefore  follow  that  they  would  refuse  to  sup- 
port a  thoroughly  good  newspaper.  There  are 
some  few  great  journals  whose  merits,  neigh- 
bored as  they  are  by  glaring  faults,  deserve  high 
praise.  Has  any  one  heard  that  these  are  not 
financially  profitable  ?  Unsatisfactory  as  they 
are,  they  depend  on  the  support  of  the  best  peo- 
ple, and  receive  it  because  there  is  nothing  bet- 


120  ^be  Xaw  of  Service 

ter  to  support.  Where  great  ability  and  pro- 
fessed independence  are  vitiated  by  actual 
partisanship,  and  that  not  over-scrupulous,  or 
respectable  old  partisanship,  though  able,  glories 
in  its  limitations,  there  is  certainly  room  for  a 
new  departure  ;  and  good  work  would  not  only 
meet  with  a  hearty  welcome,  but  create  a  new 
and  growing  demand.  The  best  product  of 
journalism  to-day  is  by  no  means  sharply  distin- 
guished from  pure  literature.  A  better  manage- 
ment would  bring  the  literary  element  still  more 
to  the  front,  and  would  do  much  in  various  ways 
for  the  development  of  the  public  taste,  and  of  a 
literature  fresh  and  strong  by  its  vital  connection 
with  the  life  of  the  people. 

As  journalism  should  keep  us  in  touch  with 
the  times  without  doing  the  work  of  a  drag-net 
to  dump  at  our  firesides  an  unselected  and  un- 
cleansed  mass,  so  it  belongs  to  general  literature 
to  acquaint  us  with  the  life  of  all  times,  the 
whole  range  of  human  experience,  and  the  sub- 
stance of  all  important  thinking,  without  defiling 
our  imagination,  vitiating  our  sympathies,  or  dis- 
turbing the  balance  of  our  judgment.  The  field 
is  too  great  for  omnivorous  reading,  even  if  that 
were  desirable.  The  mature  reader  for  himself, 
and  the  parent  or  educator  for  the  young,  must 
exercise  some  kind  of  discrimination  or  censor- 
ship ;  and  upon  the  method  of  this,  momentous 
consequences  depend.  The  attempt  to  *'  form 
the  mind  "  of  youth   by  a  restricted  choice  of 


Xlterature  121 


reading  warranted  to  be  orthodox  in  teaching 
and  safely  conventional  in  matter  and  treatment 
may  easily  be  unfair  as  well  as  injudicious. 
None  of  us  are  perfect  in  wisdom  ;  and  it  is  not 
right,  acting  on  the  assumption  that  our  views 
are  the  only  safe  ones,  to  narrow  unduly  a  young 
person's  field  of  vision,  lest  he  be  tempted  to 
think  for  himself.  The  writers  of  power  and  the 
masters  of  style  are  not  those  safe,  commonplace 
persons  whose  deliverances  can  be  warranted 
harmless.  The  great  books  of  the  world,  not  ex- 
cepting those  that  make  up  the  Bible,  are  bold  in 
expressing  the  thought  that  is  uppermost,  and 
they  call  a  spade  a  spade.  Such  books  may 
easily  be  perverted  to  the  purposes  of  false 
reasoning  or  morbid  imagination.  The  Devil  can 
cite  scripture  for  his  purpose.  To  avoid  all 
danger  were  to  avoid  the  best  of  life.  Never- 
theless, it  is  imperative  that  there  be  some  dis- 
crimination for  those  who  cannot  yet  choose  for 
themselves.  It  is  safe  to  banish  all  books  that 
are  weak  and  trashy,  whether  pious  or  impious  ; 
all  books,  of  whatever  stamp,  that  are  morbid;  all 
books,  of  course,  that  are  covertly  or  openly  im- 
moral. Books  of  controversy  are  not  for  the 
young  ;  the  judicial  temper  comes  late,  if  hap- 
pily it  come  at  all.  But  the  best  way  to  keep  out 
the  bad  is  to  fill  the  thoughts  with  what  is  good. 
Strong  books  and  morally  sound,  enforcing  uni- 
versal truth,  and  if  by  example  rather  than  pre- 
cept, so  much  the  better  ;    books  of  kindling 


122  ^be  Xaw  of  Service 

thought  and  large  horizon;  books  of  imagination, 
of  beauty,  of  nature,  of  sympathy  with  all  the 
living — these  are  not  always  wholly  safe,  but  it 
is  wise  to  read  them.  The  world  is  a  dangerous 
place,  and  character  must  not  be  left  to  be 
formed  by  reading  only.  The  key  to  the  moral 
labyrinth  of  this  world  must  be  given  in  the  cen- 
tral Law  of  Love,  to  which,  from  infancy,  all 
things  thould  be  related,  and  all  gracious  influ- 
ences invoked  until  it  be  written  upon  the  heart. 
Then  the  selective  and  assimilative  principle 
will  not  be  wanting,  that  all  things  may  work  to- 
gether for  good.  Loyal  to  that  law,  we  cannot 
go  fatally  astray.  Inspired  by  it,  we  shall  profit 
by  the  literature  of  power,  of  imagination,  of  the 
history  of  man,  of  all  knowledge  and  philosophy. 
As  to  the  literature  of  the  future,  we  are  in 
the  dark.  We  cannot  judge  of  it  by  the  past, 
because  the  conditions  of  the  past  cannot  be 
repeated.  The  childhood  of  the  world,  with  its 
glorious  imagination  born  of  ignorance  and  mys- 
tery, has  gone  forever.  Science,  with  weights 
and  measures  and  dry  white  light,  material  pro- 
gress, with  its  smoke  and  roar  and  commonplace 
splendor,  even  philanthropy,  with  its  model 
tenement  houses,  might  seem  to  have  banished 
the  muses.  But  though  we  may  not  see  how  the 
eloquence  and  song  of  the  future  are  to  come, 
let  us  remember  that  beauty  and  power  still  ex- 
ist, the  barrier  of  mystery  remains,  only  a  little 
farther  removed,  the  light  that  never  was  on  sea 


Xiterature  123 


or  land  still  shines  for  the  pure  in  heart,  the 
soul  of  man  is  greater  than  the  accidents  of 
time.  The  literature  of  the  future,  if  frankly 
Christian,  will  be  only  the  truer  and  sounder  ; 
if  it  has  taken  to  itself  the  wisdom  of  science, 
it  will  be  all  the  more  conversant  with  the 
thoughts  of  God.  Old  Hebrew  poetry  may  give 
us  hints  of  an  imagination  more  primitive  and 
deeper  than  the  Greek  or  the  Elizabethan,  and 
therefore  more  perennial.  The  stuff  that  poetry 
is  made  of  is  in  the  New  Testament  also,  and  in 
modern  life.  The  poetry  lingers,  but  its  golden 
age,  we  may  believe,  is  somehow  yet  to  come. 


XXI. 
EDUCATION. 

TF  this  chapter  treats  of  higher  education,  it 
■'  is  not  in  disparagement  of  the  lower.  The 
common  schools  are  significant  and  important 
beyond  the  danger  of  exaggeration.  While  they 
might  in  some  fashion  do  their  work  if  academic 
culture  did  not  exist,  as  a  matter  of  fact  they 
are  largely  dependent  upon  it  for  their  efficiency, 
and  ought  to  be  far  more  in  touch  with  it  than 
they  are.  So  far  as  the  common  schools  differ 
in  principle  from  systems  of  business  appren- 
ticeship, from  utilitarian  establishments  pure 
and  simple,  the  same  doctrines  which  apply  to 
higher  institutions  apply,  mutatis  7?iuta7idis,  to 
them.  Pressing  and  difficult  as  are  the  problems 
of  administration  and  method  in  elementary 
work,  a  good  system  will  surely  be  evolved 
where  there  is  broad  and  sound  thinking  with 
sincere  devotion  in  the  leaders  of  culture,  and 
enlightened  public  spirit  in  the  people  at  large. 
Without  these,  systems  and  appliances,  technical 
training  and  financial  support,  will  be  compara- 
tively of  little  avail. 

124 


^EDucatlon  125 


In  a  recent  public  discourse  an  American  prel- 
ate, fired  with  the  vision  of  "  the  Ireland  of  St. 
Patrick  as  that  great  servant  of  God  left  it — its 
bishops,  priests,  monks,  monasteries,  schools, 
colleges,"  waxed  eloquent  over  the  "  Greater 
Ireland  of  the  West."  Doubtless  the  mediaeval 
church  did  great  service  in  keeping  alight  the 
torch  of  learning  and  handing  on  the  unworldly 
traditions  of  the  cloister.  "  The  still  air  of 
delightful  studies "  John  Milton  was  not  the 
first  to  breathe  ;  rather  with  his  free  spirit 
and  liberal  learning  he  opened  to  a  more 
bracing  atmosphere  and  a  brighter  sunlight  the 
studious  retirement  of  many  generations  of 
monks.  The  modern  university  has  its  roots 
deep  in  the  past.  The  good  archbishop  just 
quoted,  so  enamored  of  the  mediaeval,  strikingly 
illustrates  the  conservatism  of  priestly  robe  and 
scholastic  gown.  Long  ago  the  English  church 
gave  up  the  celibacy  of  the  priest,  but  the  Eng- 
lish universities  have  clung  to  the  celibacy  of 
the  scholar  down  to  our  times.  Handmaid  dur- 
ing the  dark  ages  of  a  religion  whose  ideals  were 
abnormal  and  its  thinking  therefore  cramped 
and  perverted,  roused  into  zealous  activity  by  a 
revival  of  interest  in  classical  antiquity  rather 
than  by  a  spirit  of  inquiry  into  the  great  con- 
cerns of  the  present,  it  is  no  wonder  if  university 
learning  has  been  slow  to  understand  the  modern 
spirit,  and  has  lacked  flexibility  and  practical 
sense   for   the   adequate  leadership  of  modern 


126  Zbc  Xaw  of  Service 

culture.  Bringing  their  standards  and  methods 
from  the  past,  the  higher  schools  have  been  a 
law  unto  themselves.  Prestige  of  priesthood,  of 
antiquity  and  the  mystery  of  learning,  together 
with  remoteness  from  the  every-day  business  of 
life,  has  traditionally  given  them  comparative 
immunity  from  criticism.  Outside  of  favored 
circles  there  has  been  so  much  ignorance  of  the 
whole  matter,  and  the  business  world  has  found 
so  little  in  their  product  to  which  to  apply  effec- 
tively its  rigorous  tests,  that  they  have  been  irre- 
sponsible ;  and  irresponsible  management  is  bad 
management.  Now  this  mediaevalism  and  irre- 
sponsibility has  in  recent  times  had  to  encounter 
the  rapid  and  arrogant  development  of  a  materi- 
alistic civilization,  with  its  worship  of  "  success," 
its  worldly  spirit  and  habits,  its  utilitarian  de- 
mands, and  its  control  of  "  the  sinews  of  war." 
If  higher  education  to-day,  then,  is  in  a  chaotic 
state,  combining  the  faults  of  old  and  new  with- 
out doing  justice  to  either,  the  reason  is  obvious. 
The  spirited  address  which  Mr.  Charles  Fran- 
cis Adams  delivered  some  years  ago,  entitled 
"  A  College  Fetich,"  was  right  in  so  far  as  it 
maintained  that  education  should  prepare  us  for 
the  work  of  life.  If  he  had  taken  the  Law  of 
Service  for  his  text,  this  would  have  been  merely 
the  logical  deduction.  It  should  not  be  neces- 
sary to  point  out  here  that  moral  culture  is  best 
attained  in  preparing  for  that  work  and  per- 
forming it ;  and  it  needs  no  labored  argument 


BDucation  127 


to  show  that  in  this  same  preparation  and  per- 
formance is  a  sufficient  field  not  only  for  bring- 
ing the  intellect  to  its  highest  efficiency,  but  for 
giving  it  most  generous  cultivation.  The  work 
of  life  is  so  vast,  varied,  and  arduous  ;  it  calls  for 
such  breadth  of  view,  penetration,  wealth  of 
knowledge  and  philosophic  intelligence  ;  it  con- 
nects at  so  many  points  with  what  is  finest, 
deepest,  most  inspiring  in  the  realm  of  thought, 
and  it  appeals  so  powerfully  to  the  imagination, 
that  no  academic  ideal  need  embrace  more  in 
its  field  of  culture,  no  university  ambition  need 
aspire  to  greater  achievement  of  research  than 
is  involved  in  the  largest  performance  of  this 
work.  It  will  be  seen  that,  here  as  elsewhere  in 
these  pages,  the  work  of  life  means  not  getting 
a  living  merely,  not  getting  wealth  or  any  kind 
of  power  or  distinction,  not  merely  nor  chiefly 
getting,  but  giving.  Evidently  one's  theory  of 
education  will  be  greatly  affected  by  his  defini- 
tion of  the  work  of  life  ;  but  if  Mr.  Adams  or 
any  other  critic  holds  that  education  should 
make  for  practical  efficiency,  so  far  forth  he  is 
eminently  right.  Perhaps  enough  has  been  said 
by  the  critics,  and  with  substantial  justice,  es- 
pecially if  the  critics  are  themselves  college  men 
by  training  and  sympathy,  as  to  the  unsatisfac- 
tory and  inadequate  results  of  college  work. 
Much  has  been  said,  and  a  good  deal  has  been 
done,  about  changes  in  the  curriculum  and  ex- 
tension of  the  elective  system  ;  and  the  move- 


128  Zbc  3Law  ot  Service 

ment  in  this  direction  hardly  needs  more  pushing 
than  it  gets.  There  are,  however,  certain  faults 
in  the  higher  education  as  we  have  it,  which  call 
for  severe  criticism. 

Many  incidentals  there  are,  of  greater  or  less 
account ;  but  the  essential  and  distinctive  thing 
about  a  school  is  the  encounter  of  student  with 
instructor.  We  may  narrow  Garfield's  much 
quoted  definition  ;  give  us  Mark  Hopkins  and 
the  boy,  and  no  matter  about  the  bench.  It 
should  follow,  then,  that  the  office  of  instructor 
is  here  of  a  dignity  commensurate  with  its  im- 
portance. University  research  is  educative,  but 
incidentally  so.  The  most  distinguished  critic, 
investigator,  or  constructive  thinker  may  fail  as 
an  instructor.  It  is  no  disparagement  of  the 
functions  of  the  university  to  point  this  out,  and 
to  insist  that  instruction  of  youth,  not  the  ad- 
vancement of  learning,  should  be  the  aim  and 
the  sufficient  ambition  of  those  institutions, 
always  by  right  the  great  majority,  which  pre- 
pare young  people  for  life,  rather  than  for  pro- 
fessions and  specialties.  As  culture  is  incidental 
to  university  work,  so  productiveness  should  be 
incidental  to  the  work  of  general  education  ; 
and  if  the  educator  suffers  himself  to  be  lured 
to  the  neglect  of  his  proper  business  by  the  at- 
tractiveness or  personal  profit  of  investigation 
and  authorship,  he  may  gain  advantage  to  him- 
self, but  it  is  at  the  expense  of  his  pupils.  As 
for    the    specialist    everything    centres    in    his 


BOucation  129 


specialty,  and  for  the  author  everything  con- 
tributes to  his  books,  so  for  the  instructor  all 
should  centre  in  the  class-room,  and  all  con- 
tribute to  his  efficiency  there.  There  should  be 
his  pride,  his  ambition,  his  devotion.  This  may 
seem  to  many  a  hard  saying  about  a  humble  and 
toilsome  work  ;  but  let  it  be  noted  that  making 
men  and  women  is  quite  as  great  as  making 
discoveries,  or  making  books,  or  making  money. 
It  is  doing  at  first  hand  that  which  all  worthiest 
effort  directly  or  indirectly  seeks  to  do.  More- 
over the  work  is  so  elevated  and  exacting  as  to 
demand  for  its  right  performance  the  most 
liberal  and  unremitting  personal  culture,  and 
so  interesting  in  itself  as  that  ought  to  be  which 
deals  immediately  with  human  nature,  most  in- 
teresting of  subjects,  at  its  most  plastic  and 
attractive  period.  If  for  any  teacher  this  is  not 
enough,  the  world  is  wide — let  him  leave  the 
profession.  Special  gifts  are  for  special  uses  ; 
and  as  to  those  unfortunates  who  can  make 
nothing  better  than  drudgery  of  this  magnifi- 
cent and  delightful  service,  there  are  humbler 
and  more  congenial  tasks  in  plenty  for  their 
commonplace  abilities. 

The  notion  has  got  abroad  of  late  years  that 
the  chief  officer  of  an  institution  of  learning 
must  be  a  man  of  "  business,"  a  good  figure- 
head, a  man  of  the  world  to  push  the  claims  of 
his  charge  and  raise  money  for  it.     Certainly  he 

should  be  in  the  broadest  sense  a  man  of  busi- 
9 


130  ^be  Xaw  ot  Service 

ness,  and  if  professionally  competent  he  will 
generally  secure  recognition  in  the  great  world  ; 
but  it  is  indispensable  that  he  be  a  scholar  and 
a  man  of  culture.  A  mere  business  man  in  such 
a  position  is  an  absurdity  like  an  impressionist 
painter  at  the  head  of  a  railroad  corporation. 
We  must  still  distinguish,  however.  The  presi- 
dent of  a  university,  while  he  must  have  execu- 
tive ability,  may  or  may  not  be  a  skilled 
educator.  The  students  under  his  administra- 
tion are  in  pursuit  of  knowledge.  They  have 
passed  the  disciplinary  stage  ;  their  general 
culture  is  henceforth  their  own  affair.  The 
head  of  a  distinctively  educational  establishment, 
on  the  other  hand,  should  be  an  educator,  and  as 
such  ought  to  make  his  mark  in  the  outside  world, 
representing  and  interpreting  the  academic  idea, 
while  within  the  walls  his  criticism,  inspiration, 
or  direction  should  reach  to  every  department 
and  every  individual. 

Let  the  line  be  sharply  drawn,  then,  between 
college  and  university.  Instead  of  trying  to 
make  inferior  colleges  into  feeble  universities, 
it  might  be  well  to  convert  here  and  there  a  so- 
called  university  into  something  really  worthy  to 
be  called  a  college.  An  ill-endowed  academy, 
instead  of  inflating  itself  with  the  pretensions  of 
a  "  people's  university," — the  language  has  been 
soberly  used  in  public — would  better  undertake 
to  teach  a  few  things  modestly  and  thoroughly 
well.     The    "  people  "  need    no  such   ''  univer- 


jE&ucation  131 


sity."  What  deserves  that  name  is  for  no  class, 
high  or  low  ;  it  is  democratic  in  the  best  sense. 
A  sham  is  fit  neither  for  the  few  nor  for  the 
many.  Typewriting  and  the  like,  as  business 
pursuits,  will  take  care  of  themselves  ;  while  in- 
struction in  advanced  subjects  is  already  pro- 
vided for  those  who  will  work  up  to  it.  The 
true  educator's  motto  is  Non  multa  sed  multum. 
The  instruction  of  classes  calls  for  competent 
scholarship,  constantly  new-fed  with  the  world's 
best,  for  hard  sense  both  in  conception  and  in 
execution,  for  every  grace  and  force  of  char- 
acter. Now  and  then,  doubtless,  an  instructor 
falls  a  victim  to  the  merciless  persecution  of  his 
pupils.  Barbarous  and  wicked  on  the  student's 
part  as  this  persecution  is,  it  belongs  to  the  great 
process  of  evolution.  The  fittest  survive  ;  it  is 
the  unfit  who  perish.  Whoso  has  not  the  per- 
sonal force  to  be  master  must  go  to  the  wall  ; 
his  place  is  on  the  other  side  of  it.  But  of  those 
who  hold  their  positions,  every  college  graduate 
knows  that  a  large  proportion  are  conspicuously 
lacking  in  one  or  another  of  the  qualifications 
that  command  respect.  Not  to  speak  of  callow 
tutors,  chosen  for  their  record  in  the  marking- 
book,  who  does  not  recall  a  Dryasdust,  a  tyrant, 
a  blusterer,  an  easy-going  incompetent,  an  in- 
carnation of  mediocrity,  or  a  cold-blooded  ver- 
tebrate in  the  professor's  chair  ?  It  is  true  that 
instructors  are  and  must  be  human  ;  but  neither 
they  nor  those  who  appoint  them  seem  to  ap- 


132  ^bc  Xaw  of  Service 

preciate  the  dignity,  the  splendid  opportunity, 
the  inspiring  demands  of  their  high  office. 

A  natural  consequence  of  incapacity  or  indif- 
ference among  college  instructors  is  the  low- 
standard  of  requirement  for  admission  to  college 
classes,  and  especially  for  retention  in  them. 
Another  is  the  belittlement  that  goes  with  petty 
marking  systems,  happily  not  everywhere  so 
petty  as  they  used  to  be.  Another,  the  anti- 
quated but  not  obsolete  fashion  of  cramping 
preparatory  work  by  specific  requirements  w^hich 
can  be,  almost  need  to  be,  and  generally  are, 
crammed  for.  Instead  of  knowing  a  language 
to  some  practical  purpose, — a  knowledge  which 
may  be  fairly  required  and  easily  tested — the 
candidate  is  to  know  certain  portions  of  certain 
authors  ;  and  old  examination  papers  are  sent 
out,  which  he  and  his  teachers  may  be  found 
laboring  over,  that  he  may  be  "  up,"  forsooth, 
on  the  particular  I'ind  of  questions  he  is  likely  to 
get.  Another  outstanding  fault  is  the  frivolity 
and  extravagance,  not  to  say  worse,  of  academic 
life.  Instead  of  a  preparation  for  service  in  the 
world,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  many  a  young 
man's  college  career  is  a  preparation  for  amus- 
ing himself  at  the  world's  expense.  Where  the 
expenditure  of  the  average  undergraduate  would 
support  a  self-respecting  family  in  comfort  and 
refinement,  there  is  not  only  waste  of  money 
and  waste  of  opportunity,  but  a  positive  training 
for  self-indulgence  and  the  ungenerous  way  of 


Education  133 


living.  Unquestionably  college  is  no  place  for 
prigs  or  Uriah  Heeps.  The  pale  dyspeptic  of 
old,  burner  of  midnight  oil,  who  scorned  de- 
lights as  well  as  lived  laborious  days,  if  he  has 
disappeared  is  not  to  be  regretted.  A  masculine 
freedom  and  courage  and  a  boyish  gayety  are 
proper  to  the  student  ;  but  dissipated  "  dudes," 
lawless  rowdies  spared  by  a  partial  police,  reck- 
less sporting  men  in  college  colors,  idlers  ambi- 
tious to  shine  at  the  whist-table  or  caper  nimbly 
in  the  tennis-court,  can  well  be  spared.  The 
word  "  student  "  is  an  open  sesame  to  the  good 
graces  of  the  public,  partly  because  the  better 
part  of  the  public  are  in  sympathy  with  aca- 
demic aims,  and  partly  because  philistinism  sees 
its  own  ideals  expressed  in  dashing  style  by  the 
worse  class  of  undergraduates.  These  take  ad- 
vantage of  their  popularity  and  immunity  to 
abuse  the  indulgence  of  easy-going  superiors 
and  bring  discredit  on  the  college  world. 

Everywhere,  instructors  hold  the  key  of  the 
situation.  Students  as  a  class  will  not  take 
their  business  more  seriously  than  their  teachers 
do  ;  but  they  are  as  quick  to  recognize  genuine 
worth  and  good  sense  in  those  who  are  set  over 
them  as  they  are  to  despise  insincerity  and  to 
ridicule  pedantic  feebleness.  Manhood  in  the 
teacher  finds  generous  response  of  manhood  in 
the  taught.  The  same  overrunning  energy 
which  gets  vent  in  lawless  excesses  would  ex- 
pend itself  usefully  in  the  fascinating  and  inspir- 


134  tlbe  Xaw  of  Service 

ing  work  of  the  scholar,  if  it  were  competently 
managed.  Vacations  are  too  long  ;  recreations, 
so-called,  are  too  wasteful,  and  too  little  of 
genuine  worthy  achievement  is  expected  of  all 
concerned.  The  cool,  dry  atmosphere  of  the 
typical  college  professor's  mind  has  its  advan- 
tages, but  dust  and  cobwebs  need  not  accumu- 
late in  it,  nor  ice  be  suffered  to  form.  Preoccu- 
pied with  his  own  studies,  contemptuous  of 
youth  as  callow  as  his  own  was  once,  and  impa- 
tient of  a  routine  his  own  indifference  has  made 
dull,  he  may  easily  "  freeze  the  genial  current  of 
the  soul,"  and  discourage  aspiration  more  gener- 
ous than  he  ever  knew.  Narrowed  in  sympathy 
and  alienated  from  vital  interests  by  what  he  is 
pleased  to  regard  as  his  own  intellectual  breadth, 
he  may  fail  to  teach  his  subject  as  related  to 
life,  both  by  its  proper  significance  and  by  its 
bearing  on  the  development  of  the  pupil.  If  he 
does  not  grasp  the  import  and  feel  the  power  of 
the  central  Law  which  makes  life  worth  living, 
has  no  clearly  conceived  ideal  of  life  or  a 
dwarfed  and  unsymmetrical  one,  and  is  absent- 
mindedly  wrapped  up  in  his  chosen  pursuits,  he 
can  neither  feel  himself  nor  make  his  disciple 
feel  the  profoundest  unity  of  all  knowledge,  the 
most  vital  significance  of  every  science,  the  in- 
most charm  of  art  and  letters.  Enthusiasm  is 
his  first  duty  ;  not  the  zeal  of  a  specialist,  but 
the  devotion  of  a  man.  Failing  in  this,  no 
wonder  he  fails  in  so  much  else. 


B&ucatfon  135 


If  the  Law  of  Service  were  accepted  as  the 
law  of  culture,  and  all  training  viewed  as  prepa- 
ration for  service,  we  might  fairly  expect  the 
whole  business  to  be  taken  far  more  seriously 
than  it  is.  Serious  men  adapt  means  to  ends  ; 
hence  it  would  follow  that  stupidities  too  trivial 
in  themselves  for  these  pages,  yet  fruitful  of 
grave  evils,  would  be  censured  and  abolished. 
Technical  work,  as  of  editing  Greek  texts,  com- 
piling manuals,  and  writing  monographs,  would 
be  done  by  university  or  other  specialists,  sub- 
ject often  to  the  invaluable  criticism  of  practical 
educators.  The  preparation,  for  instance,  of  a 
grammar  or  dictionary  for  school  use  calls  for 
two  distinct  qualifications.  One  is  profound 
knowledge  of  the  subject-matter,  and  this  de- 
mands the  concentrated  energies  of  the  pro- 
fessional scholar.  The  other  is  the  practical 
experience  and  judgment  of  the  instructor,  and 
his  cultivated  sense  of  form  and  fitness,  with- 
out which  a  monument  of  scholarship  may  be  a 
dismal  failure  for  school  purposes.  But  the 
attempt  to  combine  the  functions  of  author  and 
educator,  while  robbing  the  instructor's  time 
for  the  drudgery  of  book-making,  opens  the 
way  for  slipshod  and  unsuitable  work.  It  is  for 
the  teacher  to  know  what  he  wants,  and, 
whether  indirectly  by  criticism  and  choice  or 
directly  by  delegating  the  work,  to  get  it.  He 
must  not  belittle  his  office  by  acknowledging 
that  any  work  is  greater  than  his  of  making  men 


136  Zbc  Xaw  of  Service 

and  women  for  use  in  the  world,  nor  betray  his 
trust  by  making  this  secondary  to  any  other. 
He  must  be  above  the  present  scramble  for 
wealth,  content  with  an  adequate  support,  and 
remembering  that  commerce  has  no  unit  of 
value  for  his  work,  which  is  incommensurable 
with  the  almighty  dollar.  He  must  pity,  not 
emulate,  the  poor  ambition  of  Cicero  for  posthu- 
mous praise,  well  pleased  if  his  life  may  have  its 
record  in  the  well-being  of  those  who  shall  come 
after. 

We  accept  the  advice  of  ''  practical "  critics 
and  innovators,  only  reserving  the  right  of 
definition,  and  will  be  as  radical  and  fearless 
as  they  in  the  endeavor  to  bring  things  to  pass  ; 
but  what  makes  us  thus  radical  also  makes  us 
conservative  of  the  good  old  tradition  of  liberal 
culture,  with  its  "  humanities  "  and  its  unworld- 
liness.  Informing  this  with  a  more  intelligent 
and  conscious  purpose  of  beneficence,  and 
applying  business  sagacity  to  the  working  out  of 
that  purpose,  we  would  rescue  the  schools  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  philistines,  and  vindicate 
their  right  to  exist  for  their  own  legitimate  ends. 
Agassiz  had  "  no  time  to  make  money  "  ;  and  to 
that  happy  scholar  doubtless  this  was  no  hard- 
ship. They  whose  exalted  office  it  is  to  make 
men  need  not  complain  if  they  lack  time  or 
strength  to  make  anything  else  whatever. 

No  special  mention  has  been  made  in  this 
chapter  of  the  education  of  women.     The  ques- 


E&ucat(on  137 


tion  is  practically  settled.  The  quiet  but  irre- 
sistible movement  of  the  last  two  or  three 
decades  will  go  on  until,  very  possibly,  more 
women  than  men  will  be  engaged  in  academic 
work.  For  years  to  come,  colleges  for  women 
will  be  increasingly  liable  to  some  of  the  same 
errors  into  which  other  colleges  are  prone  to 
fall.  If  there  is  any  force  in  the  critical  sugges- 
tions here  made,  they  apply  in  the  one  field  as 
well  as  in  the  other.  It  should  not  be  necessary 
to  prove  to  any  intelligent  reader  of  this  book 
that  the  distinction  of  sex  has  nothing  to  do  with 
its  arguments  and  conclusions.  The  Law  of 
Service  knows  no  sex,  and  the  same  is  true  of 
the  great  principles  of  education.  The  awakened 
intellect  of  woman,  and  the  development  among 
men  of  reasonable  views  concerning  her,  give 
promise  that  whatever  is  special  in  the  problem 
of  her  education  will  be  intelligently  studied, 
and  will  not  receive  undue  emphasis.  The 
logical  and  natural  outcome  of  the  movement 
now  going  on  will  be,  we  may  believe,  such  a 
development  of  "  co-education  "  that  the  awk- 
ward term  itself  will  by  and  by  cause  a  smile. 
Looking  at  the  whole  educational  field,  this 
wonderful  but  easy  and  natural  progress  seems 
by  far  the  most  encouraging  omen  it  presents. 
Speaking  numerically,  it  is  significant  as  affect- 
ing, directly  or  indirectly,  one  half  of  the  youth 
of  English-speaking  countries.  Conversion  to 
right  views  and  practice  concerning  a  matter  so 


138  ^be  Xaw  ot  Service 

important  implies  a  liberalizing  and  quickening 
in  whose  benefits  all  education  cannot  fail  to 
share.  The  effect  of  this  revolutionary  move- 
ment in  the  educational  world  itself  can  be 
partly  foreseen  but  cannot  be  computed.  In  its 
bearing  upon  the  general  welfare  in  countless 
ways  and  especially  through  the  reconstruction 
of  the  home,  it  promises  ultimate  results  of  the 
sublimest  moment.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  if  we 
can  get  the  Law  of  Service  intelligently  obeyed, 
there  is  no  fear. 

The  progress  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  a 
process  of  education  ;  it  is  an  instruction  and 
a  discipline,  an  inspiration  to  service  and  through 
service.  Beneficent  manhood  is  the  essential 
thing,  and  all  the  world's  runnings  to  and  fro 
have  their  significance  in  relation  to  that.  It 
is  the  exalted  office  of  the  educator,  standing 
among  men  for  the  doctrine  that  the  life  is 
more  than  meat  and  the  body  than  raiment, 
to  contribute  by  his  daily  toil  to  the  building 
up  of  universal  manhood.  The  Almighty  has 
no  better  work  for  himself — it  is  good  enough 
work  for  the  most  gifted  of  his  creatures. 


XXII. 


THE  DIFFERENCE. 


T  N  dealing  with  applications  of  the  Law  of 
*  Service  we  have  in  some  chapters  made 
little  express  reference  to  the  law  itself.  Here, 
as  often  in  the  conduct  of  life,  the  underlying 
principle  is  not  conspicuous  at  the  surface. 
Nevertheless,  the  enforcement  of  its  main  con- 
tention is  necessary  alike  to  the  unity  and  to  the 
usefulness  of  this  book.  If  the  convictions  out 
of  which  the  book  has  grown  are  well  founded, 
it  is  much  more  important  to  win  intelligent  and 
hearty  assent  to  its  central  doctrine  than  to  set 
forth,  however  clearly  and  forcibly,  any  specific 
applications.  It  remains,  in  taking  leave  of  the 
subject,  to  emphasize  what  we  have  tried  to 
teach  by  contrasting  it  again  with  the  theory 
and  practice  of  the  orthodox. 

The  prevailing  theory  is  in  effect  that  we 
must  "  be  good  "  ;  must  cultivate  this,  that,  and 
the  other  Christian  grace  ;  must  foster  religious 
sentiment  and  the  expression  of  it,  and  secure 
the  conversion  of  sinners,  who  are  to  become 

I3Q 


140  ^be  Xavv  of  Service 

like  us,  only  more  devout.  This  theory,  if  we 
may  judge  by  its  average  expression,  has  much 
to  do  with  the  overcoming  our  own  sins,  but 
comparatively  little  with  any  aggressive  action 
in  the  great  world,  especially  in  so-called  "  secu- 
lar "  matters.  To  do  it  justice,  we  may  grant 
that  in  many  minds  it  contemplates  the  ultimate 
leavening  of  all  human  institutions  with  the 
spirit  of  Christianity  ;  but  in  justice  we  must 
also  say  that  to  the  average  mind,  apparently, 
that  consummation  is  in  some  indefinite  far 
future,  hardly  more  vividly  conceived,  if  less 
than  the  "  day  of  judgment." 
theory  of  this  book  is  that  in  obedience 
the  all-inclusive  Law  of  Love  we  must  do 
One  Thing — we  must  bend  all  our  powers  to  do 
the  will  of  God  in  the  service  of  his  creatures, 
and  that  without  qualification  or  reserve.  We 
are  to  aim  not  at  subjective  states  or  experiences, 
except  as  these  condition  our  usefulness,  but  at 
objective  results.  We  are  to  make  this  world, 
the  only  one  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  a 
better  world.  Whatever  we  do  or  abstain  from 
doing,  we  are  to  have  this  constantly  and  con- 
sciously in  view,  content  to  believe  that  accord- 
ing as  we  thus  live  in  singleness  of  heart, 
harmonizing  our  conduct  and  aims  with  the  will 
of  God,  we  shall  receive  according  to  natural 
law — another  name  for  that  will — whatever  gifts, 
graces,  and  experiences  it  may  be  best  for  us  to 
have  ;  accounting  self-absorption  a  near  neigh- 


^be  Difference  141 


bor  to  selfishness,  a  fault  to  be  shunned  rather 
than  a  virtue  to  be  cultivated.  According  to 
this  view,  we  are  to  repudiate  the  distinction 
between  sacred  and  secular,  as  applied  to  the 
legitimate  concerns  of  life.  In  trade  or  politics, 
in  art  or  athletics,  in  literature  and  scholarship, 
in  digging  ditches  or  dealing  in  stocks  or  keep- 
ing hotels  we  are  to  be  as  devout  as  in  preaching 
sermons,  singing  psalms,  or  smoothing  the  pillow 
of  the  dying.  Walking  softly  everywhere,  awed 
by  the  divine  presence  and  the  vast  issues  of 
lifejwe  are  yet  to  keep  clear  of  the  morbid  and 
hysterical,  like  the  coolest  man  of  business  in 
his  office  or  the  healthiest  boy  at  his  games. 
W  In  the  too  common  practice  of  the  orthodox, 
f  men  distinguish  between  the  service  of  God,  the 
'  service  of  mankind — service  of  other  creatures 
being  disregarded — and  the  service  of  them- 
selves. In  the  service  of  God  they  are  religious, 
often  with  a  very  bad  grace.  They  build  hand- 
some temples,  uptown,  go  with  more  or  less 
emotion  through  forms  of  worship,  pray  and 
meditate  by  themselves.  In  the  service  of  man- 
kind they  give  a  trifle  for  evangelization — this  is 
religious  service  ;  they  give^n other  trifle  for 
charity — this  is  philanthropy  ;]  neglecting  to 
think  and  to  act  independefifly  about  public 
affairs,  they  follow  the  lead  of  the  partisan  poli- 
ticians, and  leave  municipal  management  to 
bosses,  and  sociology  to  cranks  and  college  pro- 
fessors— this  all  belongs  to  the  "  secular  "  part 


142  Zbc  Xaw  ot  Service 

of  life.  In  the  service  of  themselves  they  are 
devoted  and  diligent,  single-hearted  enough  if 
not  far-seeing.  Not  what  they  need,  whether 
for  health  or  efficiency,  but  what  they  want,  and 
as  much  as  they  can  get — this  they  must  have. 
Economy  in  expenditure  is  from  worldly  pru- 
dence, not  for  the  common  weal.  Giving, 
whether  of  money  or  of  personal  effort,  is  not 
the  business  of  life,  but  a  concession  ;  the  ques- 
tion, not  how  much  is  possible,  but  how  little  is 
sufficient.  Self-indulgence  beyond  any  rational 
use  is  not  only  shameless  but  self-complacent ; 
not  discreditable,  but  eminently  respectable. 
[In  practice  under  the  law  we  have  set  forth, 
one  serves  God,  and  himself,  by  serving  his 
fellow-creatures.  Worship,  like  the  expression 
of  filial  affection,  is  natural  and  spontaneous. 
Its  public  forms,  like  the  decorous  customs  of 
the  household,  are  determined  by  fitness  and 
usefulness.  Its  architecture  and  accessories  are 
,  not  according  to  the  wealth  and  social  position  of 
the  worshipper,  but,  again,  are  for  fitness  and 
use,  and  are  limited  by  the  economies  of  service. 
Service  of  fellow-creatures  is  the  one  business 
and  study  of  life  ;  service  of  self  is  incidental  or 
indirect.  Giving  of  mind,  body,  and  estate  is 
the  normal  process,  the  daily  joy  of  life  ;  inabil- 
ity or  failure  to  give  is  its  chief  distress.  Self- 
indulgence  beyond  rational  use  is  disreputable  ; 
private  display  is  both  ungenerous  and  vulgar. 
Public  spirit,  with  all  that  it  implies,  is  the  natural 


Cbe  Diftercnce  143 


atmosphere  of  the  life  of  service  ;  public  mis- 
fortune a  personal  grief,  public  disgrace  a  per- 
sonal shame.  The  welfare  of  the  Nation,  not 
as  a  jealous  competing  neighbor  of  other  states, 
but  as  a  generous  and  beneficent  member  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Nations,  is  the  glory  and 
pride  of  the  Christian  citizen. 

The  world  is  grievously  afflicted.  The 
church  has  doctored  the  symptoms  of  its  ail- 
ment empirically,  in  an  intermittent  and  emo- 
tional way.  According  to  the  Law  of  Service 
we  are  to  deal  scientifically  with  the  disease 
itself  by  radical  and  constitutional  treatment. 
The  springs  of  human  life  must  be  cleansed,  its' 
processes  made  normal  and  vigorous,  its  activi- 
ties reformed.  We  have  reckoned  on  selfishness 
as  the  motive  of  human  action  ;  let  us  have  the 
faith  and  courage  to  reckon  on  love.  Self- 
seeking  competition  is  war,  with  all  its  miseries^ 
generous  service  is  peace  with  all  its  blessings. 


THE    END 


1    1012  01247   0144 


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